The Good Eye

A golf shot is a harmonious collaboration between a good eye and sure hands while disharmony and a bad eye festers doubt in a competitor’s constitution. Doubt never hit a golf ball well while the approaching examination of clearing a lake or a facing bunker assert their ground. A well struck golf ball for the shot at hand must possess in the mind of the golfer a steel certitude of intent and in the very least a mustard seed of faith in order to have a chance. This, of course, does not always guarantee the best result but favors the confident over the varied mind.

Not to linger too long in the cliché, the Christian’s faith works much the same as striking a golf ball. All too often we find the hard work of being faithful appears too demanding, an approaching examination of “Is there another way or does God really expect this from me?” Maybe we rest in the idea our belief in Christ’s death and resurrection is enough. While accepting our salvation to be true and promised through His sacrifice, to rest there ignores everything else Christ said to us. We must swallow the whole pill to be cured, not just read the label on the bottle.

The point of doubt, the moment of decision with every circumstance at hand, is the hard testing the Christian must endure in his transformation. We either slide down the slippery slope of “I don’t understand, so I won’t try” or “I’ll let this doubt settle until I am able to see the other side, the folly of the doubtful thought until time allows truth to visit and remain.” Doubt, then, becomes not just the way our faith is tested but also the way it is confirmed and becomes sure.

If any Christian finds such a struggle to be a curious insurrection, he must consider that our Lord desires from us what He knows He created in us. Of course, there are many diversions placed in the path of every Christian, diversions mostly chosen because faith seems the harder choice. Doubt and uncertainty give birth to them all. The manifestation, whatever vice or questioned character trait arises, is but a symptom of this incertitude and bad eye.

Many Christians are called to some form of ministry whether it be the pulpit, the mission field, or the local poor. This is the call to do. If he finds he is not called to do, let him not forget every Christian is called to be. We are all called to follow Christ, to become as C.S. Lewis says, “little Christs,” to give our utmost in the effort—to be humble, to be just and merciful as is God. This means we are to face doubt as an irritation that one day will produce a pearl. Then one day, we actually may wear the shoes of our neighbor, the most beautiful pearl of them all.

Face doubt for what it is—a call to a deeper understanding and relationship with our Lord.