Welcome to "Tuesday Mornings," a weekly source of encouragement and inspiration for Christians everywhere.

 

The dictionary defines "mindless" as "having no intelligent purpose, meaning, or direction." A secondary definition reads, "lacking intelligence or good sense, foolish." We all know people whose actions fit into one or more of these definitions. Mindlessness pretty well sums up a thought process that excludes faith. Intelligence is the antonym for mindlessness.

 

Everywhere the scriptures admonish us to be mindful, purposeful, and rational. An expert in the law once asked Jesus, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" The man was trying to test Jesus. The Lord replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (Matthew 22:37) Jesus gave a godly interpretation to the well-known passage in Deuteronomy 6:5, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." (emphases mine) Jesus was not taking liberty with the passage, but merely pointing out to the religious thinkers of the day that they had missed the meaning of that portion of the Law. They were mindless.

 

Today's followers of Jesus have no excuse for a lack of intelligence. We have had more than two thousand years to consider the teachings of Jesus. He wants our strength, but he also wants our mind! He wants us to have a reasoned purpose in life—a direction to follow.

 

This past weekend was every golfer's fantasy—The Masters. Played out at the luxurious Augusta National course in Georgia, the four-day championship drew the best and finest golfers from around the world. A relative newcomer, Zach Johnson of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was the winner. Interestingly, he attributed much of his performance to his faith in God. What a surprise! But it shouldn't surprise us that a Christian can win in a sport that requires the coordination of mind and body. One of America's legendary golfers, Bobby Jones, once said, "Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course ... the space between your ears."

 

"Tuesday Mornings" honors Bobby Jones. The essay is attached below. Read on whenever you are ready, and then prepare yourself for a "tournament" of your own this week—a contest that requires your best gifts, skills, and thinking!

 

Tom Barnard

A Senior Encourager

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Golf Legend

Tom Barnard

 

ompile a list of the greatest American golfers of all time, and the name of Bobby Jones will be on it. Compile a list of the greatest international golfers of all time, and his name will be on that list as well. Compile a list of the greatest professional golfers of all time, and the name of Bobby Jones will not be on it. Bobby Jones remained an amateur for his entire golfing career.

 

Robert Tyre “Bobby” Jones was born on March 17, 1902, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was only five years old when he first picked up a club and won his first “children’s” tournament at the age of six. He was a junior club champion when he was nine, and by the age of fourteen he made the third round of the U.S. Amateur Championship. He was only 21 when he won his first U.S. Open in 1923. In all, Jones won the U.S. Open Championship four times, The Open (now called the British Open) three times, and the U.S. Amateur five times. In 1930 he won all four majors—truly a “Grand Slam.” He played in every Walker Cup Championship from the year of its inauguration in 1922 until his retirement. In 1930, at the age of 28, Jones retired from competitive golf.

 

He never had a formal lesson, but it has been said that his swing was so smooth that professional golfers still try to copy it themselves. Someone once said of him, “Jones won everything in golf and then he won it again. No one has achieved so much in such a short career. On that basis, he can be considered the greatest golfer that ever lived.”

 

Raised in a well-to-do family, Bobby Jones earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1922. He graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature in 1924. After only one year in law school at Emory University, he passed the state bar exam. After he retired from playing golf, he set up his own law practice in Atlanta. Later he was co-designer of the Augusta National course and was one of the founders of The Masters Tournament, first played in Augusta in 1934.

 

In 1948 Jones was diagnosed with a disease of the central nervous system and never played golf again. In 1971, at the age of 69, Bobby Jones passed away.

 

Among the many quotes attributed to Bobby Jones is this one:

 

“It is nothing new or original to say that golf is played one stroke at a time.

But it took me many years to realize it.”

 

But my favorite is this one:

 

“Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course …

the space between your ears.”

 

Actually, the game of life is played mainly on “a five-and-a-half-inch course”—or wherever our thought processes begin. Paul said this to the Christians in First-Century Rome (12:1 J.B. Phillips):

 

“With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship,

to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him.”

 

Authentic Christianity is more than a sentimental something that resides in our hearts. Authentic faith is something that is based on fact—intelligent decision-making.

 

The Apostle Paul also wrote to the Church at Philippi (2:5 NKJV),

 

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus….”

 

God does not expect us to be mindless Christians, but mindful Christians. And it also helps our golf game.