~~Golfitis~~

Once a year, the first week in August, our family is overcome with "Golfitis".

There is a local junior golf tournament that our kids have played in for several years. It is a 3 day tournament and kids come from all around the area to play in it.

Some of the complimentary gifts the participants receive upon entering the tournament are: a shirt, a sleeve of balls, a golf towel, a golf umbrella and more. All a player has to do to get these gifts is to sign up to play.

However after 3 days of play there are "special prizes" awarded to each golfer according to their overall performance.......

1st through 6th place trophies are awarded for each flight in every age group so nearly all of the kids get a trophy. Some are a little bigger than others but the kids don't seem to mind, they are thrilled to have such a beautiful piece of hardware and they all feel like winners!

However, this year I know of 3 kids (one of whom was my son) who didn't receive a trophy because they were disqualified from the tournament before it was over. Their offenses were very different but the results were the same; they could finish the tournament but were ineligible for the rewards at the end.....

On the second afternoon of play my son found himself playing in a group of cheaters. These boys were so blatantly cheating that the group ahead of them turned them in. When confronted with their behavior two of the boys admitted their deceit while the third lied. When my son was asked if he did anything wrong he answered truthfully:

"on one hole I lost my ball near a sewer. When I couldn't find it I dropped a ball and gave myself a penalty stroke."

Unfortunately the rules state that under those circumstances he should have returned to the tee box to do the shot over. The fact that my son didn't know that rule didn't matter, he was guilty of breaking the rules and was disqualified from the trophy race.

After getting over the initial anger and disappointment I have seen some very valuable life lessons here:

1) Be careful who you associate with!
If he had not been with cheaters no one would have questioned his game. Sometimes we choose to be with people of bad character but other times, like in this situation, life just places us there and we had better know how to handle ourselves. Not only do we need to hold ourselves to an even higher moral standard, we should do whatever we can to separate ourselves from their sinful ways or it may be THEIR behavior that brings US down. Had he been playing with people who knew and followed the rules they might have been able to stop him from inadvertently breaking them.

2) Care more about doing what is right than how you look to others!
When he noticed these kids cheating my son could have told a field Marshall what was going on but he didn't want to look like a "rat". Sometimes it is in our own best interest that we stand up and do what's right even if it is not the "popular" thing to do.

3) Ignorance is no excuse!
Breaking the rules is breaking the rules and the consequences are the same whether we break them intentionally or inadvertently. Similarly, sins of omission are no different than sins of commission. God isn't interested in excuses!

4) Who we are now will determine who we are (and what we have) in heaven!
Take for example the boy who cheated, lied and got away with it. He ended up winning the 5th place trophy in his flight (coincidentally, that would have been my son's prize had he not been disqualified). It certainly isn't uncommon to see people get ahead through deceitful behavior, but the bible says that if we have received our reward on earth it will not be ours in heaven. On the other hand, I have to believe that because my son chose to do the right thing and forgo the earthly reward, he will be rewarded for his honesty.

5) Being disqualified from the tournament doesn't mean we can't complete the game!
All 3 boys were allowed to play out the day even if they were ineligible for the rewards at the end. I believe our salvation is secure once Jesus is our Lord but should we choose to remove Him from the throne of our life, we are choosing to forfeit the rewards He wants to give us.

The final spiritual parallel I saw in this situation was from a different perspective. Just as Jesus is our advocate I saw my husband search the rule book until he found an "exception" to the rule that seemed to justify our son's position. In the end it didn't change the outcome, but our son has seen that even though he made a mistake his father loves him dearly and is willing to be his defender.


I do want to be perfectly clear that I don't believe in "earning your way into heaven based on performance". Just like the "entry gifts" of the tournament our salvation is ours to keep once we have placed Jesus as Lord of our life. What I do think is, that just like the golf trophies, the way we live our "earthly lives" as Christians will result in rewards we receive in heaven.