…give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. (Psalm 86:11, NIV)
It’s easy to make a mess of your golf swing. Just get to thinking two things at once.
Even in good rounds, where the ball is staying between the trees and putting me in position to make some birdie putts, I can get to thinking, Time for something different. I might as well be saying, Time for disaster.
Who messes with a good thing? Golfers.
David, the ancient king of God’s people, would have understood us well. He recognized the human drift, where we lose track of what is most important and replace it with other “side jobs.” So he asked God for an undivided heart.
Several years ago, I was engaged with some Links Players on retreat in Colorado in considering the topic of devotion. I asked them what we say of a golfer who went to the driving range early each morning to spend 20 uninterrupted minutes striking ball after ball with his 5-iron. This golfer then put away his club, got in his car, and went off to work. He never played golf, never talked golf, and never did anything about his golf game other than hit that 5-iron.
I asked the group this question: “Was that guy devoted to golf?” And we came to the agreement that while he was dedicated to his 5-iron, we could not really say that he was devoted to golf.
Then we explored the bigger question of what devotion to God looks like. If I had to answer that question this morning, I would say that it looks like an undivided heart.
See, many of us follow the same course as the 5-iron golfer. We commit ourselves to little practices that look like devotion, when in reality our hearts and minds are divided—a bit of religion here, a bit of work there, a bit of leisure at the end of the day, some time for the family on the weekend.
Devotion to God recognizes that his presence is more than that; it is omnipresence. He is everywhere and we are meant to be aware of his “everywhereness” by not thinking we can leave him behind when going from one activity to the next. God will meet you in your time of quiet with him, but he wants to walk with you in all other endeavors as well. So maintain an undivided heart that you, like David, might fear God all day, every day.
—
Jeff Hopper
July 30, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.