In Season and Out                                              12-2-16

2 Timothy 4:2 (ESV) ²  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

Sometimes you just don't feel very spiritual do you? Yeah, I know. I feel that way today. I have not adjusted to my new job with it's new schedule. It's all good but I haven't found the routine just yet. It's going to be very difficult to post this blog on Friday going forward; as my new schedule doesn't look like it is going to allow it. More than likely,beginning next week the blog will be posted on Monday night.
For a time at least. At any rate a short thought this week.

Ever NOT feel like a reading your Bible? Ever NOT feel like praying and spending time with God? Ever NOT feel like you're a Christian? Yeah I hear ya. Me too. More often than I like to admit.Many times we wake up and the LAST thing we won't to do is spend time in the Word,or prepare the Sunday School lesson,or write a blog....or whatever!!  We would rather do ANYTHING than "something spiritual."And herein lieth the lesson. 

Ever heard of Tiger Woods? If you are one of the few who have not,Tiger Woods was one of,if not the greatest golfer who ever lived. I have literally seen him put on golfing clinics in the most pressure packed circumstances.With millions of people watching and millions of dollars on the line,it seemed that he could pull unbelievable shots out of nowhere,time after time after time.I used to marvel at the talent I was watching on the television screen.It was all so easy. TOO easy I thought. I used to say to myself how that it must be nice to have been so talented. To make the game look so easy. Until I heard the assessment of a golf announcer. This announcer was someone who was in the know. He had been a very successful golfer in his day and was also a close friend of Tiger. He saw him on a daily basis during the golfing season.During a golf match one day I heard this announcer explain what made Tiger so great.

Tiger's greatness,he said was due not to his ability to hit the golf ball 320 yards on a consistent basis. His greatness was not because of his uncanny touch and finesse around and on the greens. It was not even due to his almost other worldly focus and concentration. None of these marvelous talents and abilities were the real reason for his greatness. What you ask was it then? The announcer said these words. "The reason that Tiger Woods was the greatest golfer of this and maybe of all generations was that he was a grinder".....a what? A grinder. What, Ronnie pray tell,is a grinder?  

A grinder in golf is someone who keeps going on when things aren't going right. It is someone who keeps playing when the shots aren't falling. It is someone who somehow,someway guts it out to the finish. Whether he feels good or not. Whether he feels like playing golf or not. Whether his drives were straight down the middle or over in the second cut. Whether the putts fell or rolled off the green. Tiger Woods kept on playing. He kept on grinding and finding a way to post a score. And because of that he kept himself in contention until his game came around. He was,in this announcer's educated opinion, the greatest GRINDER to ever play the game.Not the greatest scorer.Not the greatest shotmaker.Maybe not even the greatest talent. The greatest grinder.That was his secret.

This is in essence what the Apostle Paul is telling Timothy and by rote all of us isn't it?   Timothy,....Ronnie, there are going to be days that you wake up and God is going to be the last thing on your mind. There are going to be seasons that you don't "feel" like anything is going right. There will be times when you will wonder if God has forgotten you. And it is precisely these times that you're gonna have to gut it out.You're going to have to find a way.You're going to have to GRIND. But remember this. If you keep walking,keep grinding you'll find your game again. God will see to it. Amen?Amen!

Psalm 71:14 (ESV) ¹⁴  But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.



God Bless