the Week of Proper 25 / Ordinary 30
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Daily Devotionals
Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
There are professional golfers and then there are those rare men who play golf for a living. The professional golfers are those for whom the game is not a job. It is their identity. Some years ago I talked with Hubert Green in an airport in Columbus, Ohio as he was coming in for the Memorial Tournament at Jack's place in Dublin. (for those who do not watch golf, that's Muirfield Village Golf Club designed by Jack Nicklaus)
Hubert Green told me that many golfers would not be able to do much of anything else if there were not golf in their lives. Some dabble in course design, but many have golf and that is pretty much it. Jack Nicklaus has been one of those rare individuals who placed golf in perspective by making it a multi-faceted business for him. But Bruce Lietzke (pronounced lihtskee) is a golfer who plays for a living and actually leaves it alone when he is not working.
Just ask his caddie, Al Hansen. In 1984, Lietzke told Hansen to go ahead and close up his bag after the fall golf season because he wouldn't need it again until the spring. Hansen thought he knew golfers and thought he knew Lietzke. He put a green banana in the cover with the driver and sealed it tight. Sure enough, three months later Hansen opened the bag and found a "nasty, fungus-ridden growth" inside.
Lietzke is one golfer who does not allow his work to define him. He is Bruce Lietzke, a family man who happens to be a professional golfer. He is able to separate his identity from his work. He has learned to relax. Jesus was sent to earth to live and then die for all mankind. But even Jesus sought times for what he considered time away from the job and time with the family.
Jesus had just had a tough day at work. He had taught well into the evening and then had miraculously fed 5,000 people. "Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray." Mark 6:45, 46 Being the Son of God was not His job, that was who He is. Being the Savior of the world was His job and He took a break from it to spend time with His Father. Learn to separate your job from your life. Your family will thank you.
'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' Copyright 2010 © Tom Kelley. 'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: 1) A proper credit must be given to the author at the end of each story, along with their complete bio and a link to https://www.studylight.org/ 2) 'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' content may not be arranged or "mirrored" as a competitive online service.
