Page 32 - Dainfern Precinct Living 4 2021

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

YOU HAVEN'T RUN

OUT OF CHANCES

BY PETER STOFFBERG
f you play golf then you’ve probably heard
of the value of being able to forget all about
your last shot. One ball sliced into the dam
Ican plague your confidence long after you’ve
unboxed it’s ludicrously expensive replacement
and soldiered on. Golfing legend and sporting
sage Arnold Palmer famously said that golf is
a game of inches, and that the most important
inches were the six between our ears. It is a
mental game, and being able to forget previous
calamities is essential to recovering from the
sport’s inevitable setbacks. The mind is truly
powerful.
It’s not just the failures, though. Scoring two
birdies on the trot can make a part-timer like me
throw caution to the wind and play with the kind
of arrogant complacency that sends the next tee
shot over the fence and in-between passing cars
(on a good day). Reaching for the next unfeasibly
priced replacement means that there’s only one
ball left in the box. The fear of running out of SUNDAYS | 9h30
chances really doesn’t help. Forgetting the past DAINFERN COLLEGE AUDITORIUM
and focussing on the present is a priceless mental
skill for golfers, and for everyone else as well.

The past year of unprecedented challenges has
led to greater levels of anxiety and depression,
and while this could be put down to stress, it
may be more deeply linked to recollections of
failure. The skill of being able to clear our minds www.familychurch.online
of previous failures is useful in golf and in many REGISTER FOR ON SITE SERVICES
of life’s challenges, but it comes up short when
dealing with the conscience. The shame of
exposed moral We need something more powerful than our
failures and the minds to wipe away the ache of shame and
guilt of the pain guilt. It’s something only God can do, and it’s
we’ve caused can something He promises to do for those who trust
cut deep wounds in Jesus Christ for forgiveness.
that are not as
easily erased as God chose baptism as a sign of what He does
the errant swing when we believe in Jesus and trust in His
of a golf club. We forgiveness. Baptism immerses us in water, holds
can repress and us momentarily submerged, and then raises us
conceal guilt and up for a life-giving breath. It’s not only a powerful
shame, but they image of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but also
have the tendency of what He does for us. He puts our failures to
• to surface at the death, burying them forever, and then raises us to
most inopportune
a new life, washed forgiven and set free. What no
amount of positive thinking or mental fortitude can
moments,
familij especially in times do, God can do through faith in Jesus Christ. And
don’t worry, with His great love and mercy, you
of stress.
CHUIICH When it comes to haven’t run out of chances.
the conscience,
the six inches
between our ears
is helpless.

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DPL