Dear Friends,
It seems that, as far as sport is concerned, all eyes are fixed on St Andrews at the moment. The 150th Open is holding everyone’s attention and the town is benefitting from the thousands of extra people who are here to enjoy the tournament. But there are drawbacks to having so many visitors. I have seen more than one note on Facebook pleading with drivers from other countries to remember that in the UK we drive on the left! And as for trying to park, or to go about the ordinary things of life, well that all seems to have been put on hold for the moment. But the fact is that ordinary life has to go on whatever may be happening on the Old Course. People have to go to work. Shopping has to be done and people have to eat. Appointments have to be kept, and emergencies have to be dealt with. Not everything can stop because of the Golf.
As we will be hearing in Holy Trinity Church on Sunday morning, ‘Golf is a sport which in so many respects, towers above other sports, because of its inherent good manners and sportsmanship. It is called golf etiquette – the unwritten rules that make you a genuine golfer’. And actually, all of that applies not only to Golf, but to the whole of life. In order to live together in peace and harmony, there is something that could be called ‘life etiquette’, the unwritten rules of respect and consideration for others, which make life so much easier and better for all.
This morning I came across an article entitled ‘Keep the faith, it is good for your mind and body’. In it, it said that people who regularly practised spiritual disciplines tended to live longer and healthier lives. Life etiquette and spiritual discipline. It could be argued that a combination of these make for the truly rounded personalities of responsible human beings.
All of us would like to think that we are responsible human beings as we try to live in the light of Christ and by his example. And as we try to live by the etiquette of life and with the spiritual discipline of our faith, I suspect that none of us would want to say that we have been in any way deprived of the enjoyment that so many are finding in the great tournament that is going on in our town.
And one last thought. The tournament is about striving towards a goal, at its very simplest, that of putting a small white ball into a hole. Life too is about striving towards a goal, the goal of enabling God’s kingdom in today’s world. And as we walk life’s journey with Christ, we are assured that his kingdom is very near.
With love and blessings,
Marion
Categories: Minister's Blog