“I’ll Take a Mulligan”

I am probably in the minority, but I am one of the very few pastors you will ever meet who does not play golf. It’s not that I don’t like the game; I’m just not very good. I first discovered golf when I was in college, a young Tiger Woods was just beginning to capture the imagination of America, and it seemed everyone was starting to play golf. I had almost unlimited access to the resources one needs to play the game. On our college campus we had a free (although you had to retrieve your own shots, but really wasn’t that what pledges were for?) driving range, and the resort I worked for while in college had one of the premiere golf courses in the area…which I could play for free! My step-dad was also an avid golfer and provided me with the clubs I would need to start my endeavor…I mean really who gets to start off with Ping irons? No, I’ve had every opportunity to play the game, just not the physical and mental gifts to do it even average. So although I “played” at least once a week with my friends, I never developed the overwhelming love for the game that seems to have hypnotized so many of my peers…probably because, stop me if you’ve heard this already, I wasn’t very good.

To say that I wasn’t good may very well be the understatement of the century. Every golfer has that great hole, or round they played. That perfect shot that no matter how long ago it was taken, is remembered like it was yesterday. My greatest golf memory, a twenty foot putt to save par on a par 3 island shot at Sapphire Valley Golf Club…par, my greatest memory is a shot for par! It is safe to say that my greatest friend on the golf course was a “mulligan”. Without getting to deep into the etymology of the word (there are several different theories on where the term came from, each involving some dude named Mulligan) let me put it as simple as possible—a mulligan is simply a “do-over”, a second chance. Most people (and courses) allow one mulligan per round, maybe as much as two—one on the front nine and one on the back. My friends, the gracious men that they were, allowed me as many as I needed. You may think this would slow the match down, but not as much as me hiking all over the course and foraging in every water hole for a lost ball (remember I had access to resources for golf…but not unlimited ones, golf balls can get expensive!) So my golf game was one of continual “second chances”.

As many a writer has noted sports can be a great analogy for life. So it is with my life and my golf game. My life has been full of second chances. I have had so many that I don’t believe it’s really accurate to call them “second” chances anymore…let’s just call them “mulligans”. The biggest difference is that my second…I mean my mulligans in life have not necessarily come from the benevolence of some good friends, but from the loving and forgiving heart of a merciful God. Too many times in my life I have found myself in situations, of my own doing, that were less than ideal, and too many times in my life God has brought me through the consequences of my poor decisions. The Bible tells us that God is long suffering and patient  with us—wanting that none of us should suffer (2 Peter 3:9b). That He is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love (Psalm 103:8). No matter how many times I “hook” a ball into the Rough of Life, or “shank” a drive into the Woods of Poor Choices, God is there beside me. He puts His hand on my shoulder and says, “Take a mulligan on that one…try it again.” 

So here I am today. There is nothing that I have accomplished on my own because of my worthiness or my own righteousness. Everything I am today is because God had mercy on me and gave me a “mulligan”.