I was totally sucked into this show on the golf channel. The show takes a great teaching golf professional and pairs him with a terrible golfer. The show tracks the week to week interaction on how the golf pro helps the golfer get better. The bad golfer is former NBA great, Charles Barkley. He apparently was a decent golfer at some point but somehow developed a mental ‘hitch’ in his swing. He will swing the club back and then he starts down and stops the swing (like a check swing in baseball). At times he stops and starts two or three times before trying to hit the ball. Predictably, he doesn’t hit the ball too well.
On the last show Charles was getting warmed up for his round with Doctor J (another NBA great). He was hitting practice shots on a simulator (hitting into a screen) before the round and blasting it. The coach was glowing with pride and filled with confidence as his pupil was about to hit the course. Charles gets the course and the demons come back to roost with vengeance. The hitch, which the two spent weeks trying to kill and bury, appears on the first swing and never goes away.
What is my point in bringing this up? I think there is a lot to be learned from the situation. I think we are all Charles Barkley in some facet of our life. I watch him and can’t believe how a professional athlete doesn’t have the kinesthetic wherewithal to keep his head in the same spot while trying to hit a golf ball. Just keep your head still and swing without stopping at the top – how tough is that?
However as I thought about it, I realize I am doing the same thing in different facets of my life. If someone were filming me playing my game of life, I have no doubt that they would say – how tough is it, just be more positive or be more supportive or more loving or more open or more joyful or smiling or whatever. Fortunately for me, there is not a camera following through my life and sifting through my faults or I would probably be like Charles and have millions of people saying, “How tough is it to…”
From a moral perspective, I guess I’d have to believe that God is looking down on us and thinking that it shouldn’t be so difficult to be good people. “I sent my Son to help you figure out what to do to be joyful all you have to do is believe and respond. You make it so tough – just keep your head in the same place and swing the club around your body.” Is really that simple or is being good that hard?
