The Mulligan

I love the game of golf. I don't get to play as often as I would like but with a full-time job, a wife and three kids I just don't have a lot of opportunities to slip away for three hours for a quick game! As a result my game tends to be a little off when I get to the course. I am a little out of sorts, a little rusty, or as Tiger Woods said "I didn't bring my A game!" Well not only did I not bring my A game I could not find my A game if I were looking for it!

Enough of this, on with my point. As a result of my not having enough opportunities to hone my skills I have to use what we weekend warriors call mulligans. You will not hear a professional golfer ask to use a mulligan nor will you hear a caddy tell the pro that he might want to take his mulligan after that last shot. For you non-golfers a mulligan is a "do over" or a "false start" or in tennis a "Let". A mulligan is a second chance. If I tee the ball up on the first hole and hit it in the woods or in the lake I will tell the person I am playing with that I want to take a mulligan. I tee another ball up and hope for better results.

As I was having my quiet time last week I came across a couple of passages that got me thinking about the idea of mulligans, do-overs, false starts, etc.:

I Corinthians 6: 9, 10 - 9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

That's a bad shot, that ball is headed straight for the water hazard or the out of bounds area! But God in his mercy gives us a mulligan!

I Corinthians 6: 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

What a do-over, what a second chance!

I Peter 1: 3-5 - 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Vs 3 says he has given us a new birth into a living hope. - What a mulligan, what a great second chance after our false start!

If your life is headed in the wrong direction, if you are out of bounds, if you find yourself lost in the woods of life, there is hope, there is a second chance in the form of a spiritual mulligan. God is offering forgiveness and hope to anyone who asks. If you realize you have messed up just admit it (repent) and ask God for a mulligan (ask for his forgiveness). He is standing by your side ready to give you another shot!