Fooling Myself ...

Yesterday I was able to play in a golf outing for a local civic club. It was a fund raiser for their scholarship fund and for other projects they do around the community. I am an officer in the club so I felt I needed to participate, plus I enjoy golfing so it was a win win. My team came in second place just one stroke behind the winning team. We had an excellent score of 12 under par on 18 holes. When I told people that my team came in second and what our score was they were appropriately impressed.

In fact, those who have never played golf with me made the assumption that I am probably a decent golfer. That would be incorrect assumption on their part. The surprising part of all this is that I caught myself beginning to think that I was a pretty good golfer as a result of how our team finished. You see this was a scramble, where the rules are that each person on your team hit a shot then you determine which of those was the best shot. Everyone else picks up their golf ball and proceeds to hit their next shot from where the best shot landed. In the course of the day everyone contributes and the team used a few of my shots. But not on every hole and certainly my shots were not used anywhere near the most on our team. There were 2 very good golfers in our group and we used their shots the most.

Then I thought of my walk with the Lord and realized that because of His strengths that I can look better than I ever deserve to look on my own. It is tempting to begin to think that we are the one carrying the "team" and forget that it is only because of how good He is that we are winning.

I need to never forget that I am on the winning team in the long run and that I am blessed to be a part of His team. I need to keep serving Him and following His will, but remember it is by His grace that I look good.