Death by Hardening of Our Ways
In Fort Worth, Texas, there is a famous old golf course called “Glen Garden Golf and Country Club.” If you read any old golf books, you may come across this course. Started in 1912, it was been around for nearly 100 years. By any standard that is an old course in America.
My kids learned to play golf on that course, but that is not what makes it famous. It used to be a stop on the PGA tour, but that is not what makes it famous. It is the course where Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan learned to play the game.
It is a short, unchallenging course. Many courses start out that way, but over the years the course changes and the members spend money to upgrade and improve it. In the 1930s, a man named Marvin Leonard came to Glen Garden and offered to plan and finance the upgrades necessary to make Glen Garden a better course. The members rejected his plans. They did not want anything to change. Rejected at Glen Garden and at another course, Mr. Leonard decided to build his own course. He built the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. Today it is arguable the most famous course in all of Texas.
In the years since, I have played many rounds on the Glen Garden course. It is still the same basic course it was in the 1930s. Other men have tried to update the course, but the members did not want anything to change. The old-timers liked things just as they were.
Since it was the course of his youth, my son played it again not too long ago. Everything was just as he remembered some ten years earlier. Well, there was one thing different. It was almost exclusively played by old golfers. I have no problem with that since most of them can beat me. It does, however, serve to remind me that if we want things like they always were, we will never reach people of another generation and we will never be all that we can be.
Paul said, “I become all things to all people.” He did not mean that he became a liar to liars or a cheat to cheaters, but rather than he could adjust his customs to fit those around him. He did not insist that others adjust their traditions to fit in with his.
For each new custom that comes along, we must ask two questions: (1) Does God care? If He does not then we cannot let a custom stand in our way. We must become all things. (2) Does this new “custom” stand in the way of reaching out to other people? If it does, then we must refer back to number 1.
The church of Jesus Christ must not fall into the behavior of a dying, old golf course. It is a disease that causes death by hardening of our ways.
Lonnie Davis