Mini Golf Mercies and Bowling Bumpers

The other day I was out playing mini golf with my mom and siblings. I had a great start and felt I was on my way to my best score yet! Then we reached a hole with a BIG hill. My sisters had struggled a little on the previous holes and we had given them "do-overs" that didn't count toward their score. It was mini golf, no one takes it that seriously... right? 

Well, I could not get up that big hill. After 3 tries I finally made it feeling a little disappointed about my "best game" yet score. My group told me I didn't have to count two of those strokes. I should have been thrilled. That would put me back in the running for getting my best score yet! Instead, I felt like it wouldn't count. My great low score wouldn't "really" be true. Immediately, the Lord touched my heart with a parallel. Jesus went to the cross so I could get my "best score" ever! But would I humble myself to accept His mercy? 

On another day I went bowling with my mom and siblings. We had bumpers on the lanes for the kids. On one throw my ball was headed straight for the gutter, but hit the bumper and bounced into the pins. Like I had at mini golf, I felt a hint of disappointment that my score was going to appear better than it actually would have been. That ball should have gone in the gutter. 

I don't want to need do-overs, I don't want to need bumpers, I don't want to need the Lord's mercy? 

I don't think about it that way, but I live it that way. 

My heart is zealous for the Lord! I want to follow Him step for step and do everything well! But my zeal can cause me to get a little too involved and soon I am trying to take care of myself. I make rules and roadblocks to try and manage my behavior and keep myself inline. 

Trust. Following the Lord is ALL about trusting Him. Trusting Him to keep track of me. Trusting Him to watchout for me, for the pitfalls. Trusting that the fruits of the Spirit are good enough! Self-control through the Holy Spirit does not need my rules to make it "better". 

The Lord watched His children bowl gutter ball games for hundreds of years. Then hallelujah! Jesus came and brought the bumpers! So even when I make a mistake He can redeem it and I can still score.

Earlier I was asked if I would humble myself to accept His mercy. But the truth is I've done that. Begrudgingly you accept the mercy you need but somewhere in the back of your mind you are still keeping your own score. My mom wrote down my "mercy" number of strokes on the scorecard but the temptation to keep track of what I considered the "real" score was very strong. 

I don't need to just accept His mercy, I need to change my perspective about the whole game. He won! So, the score doesn't matter. For God it has always been about relationship and love.

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:4-10