Got a Minute? On Golf and Gifts

Hi, friends in exile, got a minute?

A Baptist Pastor went golfing with his Catholic-priest friend. On the first green, the Catholic priest crossed himself and muttered a silent prayer and putted his ball into the hole in one stroke. Hole after hole, he did the same thing. He one-putted on every green for nine holes. Finally, when the Baptist pastor was walking to the clubhouse with the Catholic priest for a break before the back nine, he could contain himself no longer. He asked the priest, “If I said a prayer like you do every time before I putt, do you think it would help?” The priest said, “No, I don’t.” “Why not?” asked his Baptist friend. Answered the priest gently, “Because you don’t know how to putt.” Some issues are not theological.

Paul calls the Church “the body of Christ” and writes about spiritual gifts in Romans, chapter 12. He says that every follower of Jesus is gifted but not in the same way. To express the fullness of the visible presence of Jesus in the world (His “Body”), every member is needed, and not just on the golf course.

Smiley Mudd