Check your grip.

Probably none of you know that in my younger days, I studied the game of golf. I read everything I could find on the subject. I enjoyed it, when I practiced. There is nothing that replaces the feeling of hitting a great shot. When it is done correctly, it feels almost effortless. Well, during my reading, I found Greg Norman describing one of his first big tournament wins. It was the night before the last round, and he said that Jack Nicklaus sought him out to give him some words of encouragement, and then some advice: he told him to check his grip pressure before every shot. Anybody who has hacked his way around a golf course will know why. If you grip the club to tightly, you will almost of certainty hit a bad shot. The proper grip is using just enough pressure to keep the club from flying out of your hand when you swing. Greg Norman won the tournament, because the pressure to win the tournament didn't make it into his grip.

We all have pressure, some external and some we create. There is such a big tendency to hold on to things too tightly. After all, I did this or that, or I worked for all of this. All of what? After Solomon had surveyed everything that he had worked to achieve, he found it all to be worthless. Chasing the wind is a pretty good description, when you consider everything that you have in the light of eternity. Remember, you have to lose your life to save it. Matthew 10:39, in case your wondering. So, ribbon and bow time. It seems so illogical that you loosen your grip to hit the ball further and straighter. But that is what it takes. In the same way you have to let go of what seems so natural to hold on to so tightly, to be what it is God truly wants you to be. And if you want to be a success in God's plan, that's what it takes.