My brother, the rabbi of relax

"Dan, we’re not playing golf. We’re having fun." My brother smiled at me as he picked my ball out of the deep rough and tossed it back on the edge of the fairway.

Now for some guys playing golf and having fun may not seem like opposites, but in my family of hackers, it definitely made sense. While the family and I are out here in Colorado on vacation, my brother Dave had gotten a free foursome in a high-dollar mountain tournament, and so with a couple of other friends, we hacked away with all the gusto of geeky college freshmen who somehow got invited to a big frat party.

Now we were in no danger of winning any of the various tournament contests (other than the highest score gag award), but still, Dave’s blessing of rampant mulliganism seemed a bit, well, unrighteous-- especially for a pastor. But Dave was insistent: “Look, Dan, if you want to kill yourself (and the wildflowers) hacking through all the underbrush, do that on another course. It’s my foursome and I want everyone to have fun.”

And he was right. He was the host; was his guest. But there’s something about following the rules of golf, however unforgiving, that seems obligatory when you’re a Christian. I looked up and down the course. I didn’t want people to think we were cheaters. But it seemed like my brother was interested in something more important. He was more interested in his friends having fun on this once-in-a-lifetime golf course than in what other people were thinking. Plus, I think he was being courteous to the foursome behind us by not watching us spend five minutes a hole looking for our sliced drives.

Since I’m especially lousy off the tee, instead of battling my way out of the rough on my shanked drives like usual, I simply rejoined my foursome on the fairway and tried again.

By the end of the 18 holes, I was exhausted and, ironically, a little proud (yeah, thanks to all the mulligans I ended up in the low 130s)! And boy, did I have fun! It also inspired to me to actually do the most important thing for having fun at a sport—practice.

My brother Dave is a Christian, but yesterday he was my rabbi. He reminded me of the difference between point-keeping and fun-having. When the order of the day was Sabbath—-or holy rest and enjoyment—-the legislation wasn’t as important as the recreation. We weren’t turning in any scorecards, or bragging in the clubhouse—-we were having fun. Our liberal use of mulligans on a Masters-level course was exhilarating. And for a people-pleasing, type-A guy like me, that was quite a gift-—to me, my foursome, the foursome behind us. And to the alpine wildflowers that cascade along the fairways.

Mark 2:23One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. 24 But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”…27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.