Be The Ball
Spirituality
Golf In The Real Kingdom
A Spiritual Metaphor For Life In The Modern World
Object:
... I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
-- Galatians 2:20 (NIV)
I guess I'll never be Mormon of the Year.
Let me explain.
I wrote an article not too long ago about prayer in public schools. Before suggesting putting prayer back into public schools might be the cure for what ails us, I noted Christians don't want their children led in prayer by non-Christians as much as non-Christians don't want their children led in prayer by Christians.
Trying to be a little lyrical with a touch of serious humor, I reasoned, "As a Christian, I believe Jesus is who he said he is. That has made me very nervous about who might lead the prayers in public schools. As a Christian, I don't want my children led in prayer by Mormons, Muslims, Moonies, or anyone else with a less than divine estimate of Jesus."
Aside from provoking one especially politically corrected clergyman to accuse me of everything from intentionally walking Sammy Sosa to participating in the Holocaust, it wasn't a big hit with two Mormons who really blasted me.
One dropped off a testy note at the church to tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about while the other wrote a letter to the editor to tell everybody that I don't know what I'm talking about.
Essentially, they wanted me to acknowledge Mormons as Christians.
Okay. Mormons are Christians. That's cool for politically correct public consumption. But that's not correct considering New Testament Christology.
There are significant differences between Mormons and other Christians. The truth is all of the traditional Protestant denominations, Roman Catholics, Nazarenes, Pentecostals, and so on do not recognize Mormonism as consistent with New Testament Christology. And before you shoot the messenger, go to your local Christian bookstore and check out which section includes books about Mormons.
Calling their religion the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints makes Mormons into New Testament Christians about as much as walking into McDonald's makes me into a Big Mac or playing with Pings makes me into Billy Mayfair. Just to set the record straight, claiming to be a New Testament Christian isn't enough. Last time I checked, that was the claim of Applewhite, Berg, Jones, Koresh, Hitler, and the like.
Simply and most significantly, New Testament Christians believe Jesus is uniquely Lord and Savior -- one of the three ways the one God has made Himself known to us (viz., Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). New Testament Christians believe in one God manifested in three ways -- una substantia et tres personae.
Conversely, Mormons believe in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as each being a god. Okay. If Mormons want to consider that Christianity, that's cool. But that's not consistent with New Testament Christology and just about everybody else in Christendom.
Again, there are many other differences but contradicting Christologies is the biggest.
Having said all of that, I like Mormons. I think they're great. Though their clean-cut-Mister-Clean missionaries always show up when I'm trying to watch a Pitt football game, I've always found Mormons to be cordial and cooperative as well as solid citizens. God knows the rest of us could learn a lot from them about devotion to family and faith. Indeed, there's a story floating around our corner of the Kingdom that says the difference between Mormons and Presbyterians is Mormons have something to say after they knock on the door. Moreover, some of my favorite golfers are Mormons.
That's my way of saying I like Mormons personally but disagree with them prophetically and doubt either of us makes good targets for proselytizing.
It's a big country with room for 57 varieties of religious expressions as long as we're honest about our differences as a prelude to working on the universal ethic of unconditional love.
I think of a conversation between Christian clergy and rabbis in Cranford, New Jersey, many years ago to discuss manger scenes on public properties. After I addressed the assembly and outlined the irreconcilable theological difference -- Jesus -- an old rabbi stood and said: "My young Christian friend is right. And I'll be damned if he's right. But I'm betting my soul that he is wrong just as he is betting his soul that he is right."
Let me get to the point.
Salvation belongs to God alone. I'm a little too human to be the judge of that.
But I do know the honesty of that meeting in New Jersey enhanced interfaith dialogue and service. Admitting our differences established mutual trust and enabled the pursuit of common goals.
Now before you call or write to confront me about how right you are and how wrong I am, let me share two lines from some nuns in Maryland: "If you're wrong, you can't afford to argue. If you're right, you don't need to."
Besides, it will all clear up in the end.
While studying in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1973, one of my professors was Dr. Wolfgang Löwe. Dr. Löwe was an engaging though eccentric theologian who called himself, in private, a Christian-Marxist.
Like most American students studying abroad and preparing for graduate schools, I was a real brown-noser. Having been a professor since those days, I confess liking students who brown-nosed me. It's so different from the church. Students are after grades and recommendations. So they tell you how great you are. They may not mean it, but they behave as if they do. It's a lot different from being the pastor of a church.
Anyway, my brown-nosing technique with Dr. Lšwe was to tell him how much I knew about Karl Marx and quote him extensively in class and on paper.
Dr. Löwe called me into his office for what I thought would be the payoff. Instead, he said, "Herr Kopp, I know you are an American theological student preparing to enter Princeton. I know you intend to be a Christian pastor or professor. Please start talking like a Christian and stop talking like a Marxist so I can trust you."
In other words, be authentic.
Be real.
Be yourself.
Unfortunately, too many of us bring to mind the Hagar the Horrible cartoon in which a monk says, "I think therefore I am." Hagar's dimwitted friend blurts out, "So where does that leave me?"
As we've learned from that Heritage place in North Carolina starring Jim and Tammy Faye, Swaggert's teary-eyed confession from Louisiana, and the pathetic soundings from Pennsylvania Avenue, honesty is the best policy.
Honesty begins with a credible estimate of self.
After establishing who we are, only then can we work and pray for who we ought to be.
When I played competitive tennis, I discovered my winning percentage was directly related to feeling the tennis racket was an extension or even a part of my arm. If I could feel the ball on the strings of the racket as if I were holding the ball in my hand, I knew there would be trouble on the other side of the net.
After I injured my foot in the semifinal of a doubles tournament in Toledo, Ohio, I turned to golf and discovered the same principle held true. When I feel the ball coming off the club as if I were throwing it with my hand, I know I'm going to score well.
That's why mystical golfers say, "Be the ball!"
Michael Murphy's gurus in Golf in the Kingdom (1972) illustrate the point:
I had overheard Shivas telling his pupil to think of the ball and "sweet spot" belonging together ... Shivas had told Maclver that the ball and sweet spot were "already joined." "Just see it that way," he had said, "they're aye joined afore ye started playin'." The advice helped. I began to imagine them fitting together as I laid the club head behind the ball. It helped settle me down ... I continued thinking that the club face and the ball were one.
Be the ball.
If you've ever played golf with someone like Jack Osburn, you know what I'm talking about. Jack really knows how to address the ball: "C'mon, ball! I've been good to you all day. I haven't lost you. C'mon, ball! Get in the hole!"
Some folks refer to it as visualization or seeing the result as integral to realizing the result.
Jerry Heard explained the benefits of visualization or being the ball in The Golf Secrets of the Big-Money Pros (1992):
Visualization is what we do before we stand up to hit each and every golf shot ... We stand directly behind the ball and the target ... We imagine the impact of the club hitting the ball ... We see the gentle arc of the ball in the air ... We witness the ball hitting the surface of the green ... We watch as it bounces and rolls toward the pin ... We see it follow the contours of the green as it approaches the cup ... And we see it deftly strike the pin and vanish into the hole.
He went on:
And remember this important key -- the more vividly detailed you picture this happening in your mind, the more successful you will be.
Now all this may sound like pretty weird stuff, but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. What I've mentioned before about "focusing out" is really a form of clearing your mind of all negative thinking ... When you take the time to "visualize" a successfully executed shot in a very detailed way, you are actually replacing those negative thoughts with a solid positive thought ... pushing those negative thoughts out of the way. Believe me, it works!
Just ask Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. They visualized their way to Ruthian records in the baseball season of 1998. Do you remember watching them as they visualized homers in the on deck circle?
It works!
"It is the art of putting onto your internal movie screen," reported Peter Ballingall in Golf Practice Drills (1995), "an image that depicts success."
Do you remember those marvelous scenes in Amadeus as Mozart walked through the village visualizing great musical masterpieces?
It works!
More often than not, we are who we think we are and achieve what we aspire to achieve. Bad thoughts equal bad results.
"I never really dreamed of making many putts," confessed Calvin Peete. "Maybe that's why I haven't made many."
Good thoughts equal good results. "We create success or failure on the course," Gary Player indicated and incarnated, "primarily by our thoughts."
Be the ball. The same goes for tennis, bowling, baseball, football, soccer, music, art, and everything else.
And the same goes for Christianity. If we want to be Christians, we've got to be like Jesus.
Be a Christian -- a representation of Jesus in the world -- a little Christ.
Or as Paul explained the goal of discipleship, "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20 NIV).
If Jesus is really the Lord of our lives -- the Controller and Compass -- we'll increasingly talk and walk like him.
When people ask how we become like Jesus, I say, "Read the New Testament."
When people demand more specificity, I say, "Read the Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew 5-7).
When people demand even more specificity, I say, "Well, Jesus said, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind ... and ... love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.' He also said, 'Love each other just as much as I love you.' That means, of course, loving people invitationally, inclusively, and unconditionally. In short, it means loving people to death" (see Matthew 22:34-40; John 13:34-35).
When people demand a more concise response, I say, "Love God and be kind to one another."
Be Christian!
-- Galatians 2:20 (NIV)
I guess I'll never be Mormon of the Year.
Let me explain.
I wrote an article not too long ago about prayer in public schools. Before suggesting putting prayer back into public schools might be the cure for what ails us, I noted Christians don't want their children led in prayer by non-Christians as much as non-Christians don't want their children led in prayer by Christians.
Trying to be a little lyrical with a touch of serious humor, I reasoned, "As a Christian, I believe Jesus is who he said he is. That has made me very nervous about who might lead the prayers in public schools. As a Christian, I don't want my children led in prayer by Mormons, Muslims, Moonies, or anyone else with a less than divine estimate of Jesus."
Aside from provoking one especially politically corrected clergyman to accuse me of everything from intentionally walking Sammy Sosa to participating in the Holocaust, it wasn't a big hit with two Mormons who really blasted me.
One dropped off a testy note at the church to tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about while the other wrote a letter to the editor to tell everybody that I don't know what I'm talking about.
Essentially, they wanted me to acknowledge Mormons as Christians.
Okay. Mormons are Christians. That's cool for politically correct public consumption. But that's not correct considering New Testament Christology.
There are significant differences between Mormons and other Christians. The truth is all of the traditional Protestant denominations, Roman Catholics, Nazarenes, Pentecostals, and so on do not recognize Mormonism as consistent with New Testament Christology. And before you shoot the messenger, go to your local Christian bookstore and check out which section includes books about Mormons.
Calling their religion the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints makes Mormons into New Testament Christians about as much as walking into McDonald's makes me into a Big Mac or playing with Pings makes me into Billy Mayfair. Just to set the record straight, claiming to be a New Testament Christian isn't enough. Last time I checked, that was the claim of Applewhite, Berg, Jones, Koresh, Hitler, and the like.
Simply and most significantly, New Testament Christians believe Jesus is uniquely Lord and Savior -- one of the three ways the one God has made Himself known to us (viz., Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). New Testament Christians believe in one God manifested in three ways -- una substantia et tres personae.
Conversely, Mormons believe in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as each being a god. Okay. If Mormons want to consider that Christianity, that's cool. But that's not consistent with New Testament Christology and just about everybody else in Christendom.
Again, there are many other differences but contradicting Christologies is the biggest.
Having said all of that, I like Mormons. I think they're great. Though their clean-cut-Mister-Clean missionaries always show up when I'm trying to watch a Pitt football game, I've always found Mormons to be cordial and cooperative as well as solid citizens. God knows the rest of us could learn a lot from them about devotion to family and faith. Indeed, there's a story floating around our corner of the Kingdom that says the difference between Mormons and Presbyterians is Mormons have something to say after they knock on the door. Moreover, some of my favorite golfers are Mormons.
That's my way of saying I like Mormons personally but disagree with them prophetically and doubt either of us makes good targets for proselytizing.
It's a big country with room for 57 varieties of religious expressions as long as we're honest about our differences as a prelude to working on the universal ethic of unconditional love.
I think of a conversation between Christian clergy and rabbis in Cranford, New Jersey, many years ago to discuss manger scenes on public properties. After I addressed the assembly and outlined the irreconcilable theological difference -- Jesus -- an old rabbi stood and said: "My young Christian friend is right. And I'll be damned if he's right. But I'm betting my soul that he is wrong just as he is betting his soul that he is right."
Let me get to the point.
Salvation belongs to God alone. I'm a little too human to be the judge of that.
But I do know the honesty of that meeting in New Jersey enhanced interfaith dialogue and service. Admitting our differences established mutual trust and enabled the pursuit of common goals.
Now before you call or write to confront me about how right you are and how wrong I am, let me share two lines from some nuns in Maryland: "If you're wrong, you can't afford to argue. If you're right, you don't need to."
Besides, it will all clear up in the end.
While studying in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1973, one of my professors was Dr. Wolfgang Löwe. Dr. Löwe was an engaging though eccentric theologian who called himself, in private, a Christian-Marxist.
Like most American students studying abroad and preparing for graduate schools, I was a real brown-noser. Having been a professor since those days, I confess liking students who brown-nosed me. It's so different from the church. Students are after grades and recommendations. So they tell you how great you are. They may not mean it, but they behave as if they do. It's a lot different from being the pastor of a church.
Anyway, my brown-nosing technique with Dr. Lšwe was to tell him how much I knew about Karl Marx and quote him extensively in class and on paper.
Dr. Löwe called me into his office for what I thought would be the payoff. Instead, he said, "Herr Kopp, I know you are an American theological student preparing to enter Princeton. I know you intend to be a Christian pastor or professor. Please start talking like a Christian and stop talking like a Marxist so I can trust you."
In other words, be authentic.
Be real.
Be yourself.
Unfortunately, too many of us bring to mind the Hagar the Horrible cartoon in which a monk says, "I think therefore I am." Hagar's dimwitted friend blurts out, "So where does that leave me?"
As we've learned from that Heritage place in North Carolina starring Jim and Tammy Faye, Swaggert's teary-eyed confession from Louisiana, and the pathetic soundings from Pennsylvania Avenue, honesty is the best policy.
Honesty begins with a credible estimate of self.
After establishing who we are, only then can we work and pray for who we ought to be.
When I played competitive tennis, I discovered my winning percentage was directly related to feeling the tennis racket was an extension or even a part of my arm. If I could feel the ball on the strings of the racket as if I were holding the ball in my hand, I knew there would be trouble on the other side of the net.
After I injured my foot in the semifinal of a doubles tournament in Toledo, Ohio, I turned to golf and discovered the same principle held true. When I feel the ball coming off the club as if I were throwing it with my hand, I know I'm going to score well.
That's why mystical golfers say, "Be the ball!"
Michael Murphy's gurus in Golf in the Kingdom (1972) illustrate the point:
I had overheard Shivas telling his pupil to think of the ball and "sweet spot" belonging together ... Shivas had told Maclver that the ball and sweet spot were "already joined." "Just see it that way," he had said, "they're aye joined afore ye started playin'." The advice helped. I began to imagine them fitting together as I laid the club head behind the ball. It helped settle me down ... I continued thinking that the club face and the ball were one.
Be the ball.
If you've ever played golf with someone like Jack Osburn, you know what I'm talking about. Jack really knows how to address the ball: "C'mon, ball! I've been good to you all day. I haven't lost you. C'mon, ball! Get in the hole!"
Some folks refer to it as visualization or seeing the result as integral to realizing the result.
Jerry Heard explained the benefits of visualization or being the ball in The Golf Secrets of the Big-Money Pros (1992):
Visualization is what we do before we stand up to hit each and every golf shot ... We stand directly behind the ball and the target ... We imagine the impact of the club hitting the ball ... We see the gentle arc of the ball in the air ... We witness the ball hitting the surface of the green ... We watch as it bounces and rolls toward the pin ... We see it follow the contours of the green as it approaches the cup ... And we see it deftly strike the pin and vanish into the hole.
He went on:
And remember this important key -- the more vividly detailed you picture this happening in your mind, the more successful you will be.
Now all this may sound like pretty weird stuff, but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. What I've mentioned before about "focusing out" is really a form of clearing your mind of all negative thinking ... When you take the time to "visualize" a successfully executed shot in a very detailed way, you are actually replacing those negative thoughts with a solid positive thought ... pushing those negative thoughts out of the way. Believe me, it works!
Just ask Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. They visualized their way to Ruthian records in the baseball season of 1998. Do you remember watching them as they visualized homers in the on deck circle?
It works!
"It is the art of putting onto your internal movie screen," reported Peter Ballingall in Golf Practice Drills (1995), "an image that depicts success."
Do you remember those marvelous scenes in Amadeus as Mozart walked through the village visualizing great musical masterpieces?
It works!
More often than not, we are who we think we are and achieve what we aspire to achieve. Bad thoughts equal bad results.
"I never really dreamed of making many putts," confessed Calvin Peete. "Maybe that's why I haven't made many."
Good thoughts equal good results. "We create success or failure on the course," Gary Player indicated and incarnated, "primarily by our thoughts."
Be the ball. The same goes for tennis, bowling, baseball, football, soccer, music, art, and everything else.
And the same goes for Christianity. If we want to be Christians, we've got to be like Jesus.
Be a Christian -- a representation of Jesus in the world -- a little Christ.
Or as Paul explained the goal of discipleship, "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20 NIV).
If Jesus is really the Lord of our lives -- the Controller and Compass -- we'll increasingly talk and walk like him.
When people ask how we become like Jesus, I say, "Read the New Testament."
When people demand more specificity, I say, "Read the Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew 5-7).
When people demand even more specificity, I say, "Well, Jesus said, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind ... and ... love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.' He also said, 'Love each other just as much as I love you.' That means, of course, loving people invitationally, inclusively, and unconditionally. In short, it means loving people to death" (see Matthew 22:34-40; John 13:34-35).
When people demand a more concise response, I say, "Love God and be kind to one another."
Be Christian!
