The Fairway
By Grant Gaines
It was 1925 when PGA legend Bobby Jones was competing for another win at the U.S. Open. After slicing a shot deep into the rough on the 11th hole at Worcester Country Club near Boston, Jones fought through the tall grass to address his next shot. As he placed his club behind the ball to chip it out of the rough, his club brushed the top of the golf ball which caused it to move a fraction of an inch.
After Jones finished the 11th hole several shots later he went immediately to the scoring official as well as to his playing partner Walter Hagen to inform the two men that he needed to enforce a one stroke penalty on himself for brushing the ball while it was in the rough. Both Hagen and the scoring official argued with Jones telling him that he didn’t need to take the penalty because it didn’t truly affect the outcome of the round, but Jones would not be persuaded and eventually took the one stroke penalty.
When Jones had finished his round for that day, he ended up with a score of a 77 instead of a 76 which would have given him the victory outright. Instead, because of the self-imposed penalty, Jones went into a playoff and eventually lost the tournament.
How did Bobby Jones have the integrity to take the one stroke penalty on himself even though no one else saw the ball move? Because he knew the same thing David knew in 1 Samuel 24.
In 1 Samuel 24 we find David in an unusual spot. He’s not out slaying giants or conquering kingdoms like we are so accustom to reading of David doing. Instead, he’s hiding in the back of a cave with a small dispatch of soldiers as his psycho father-in-law, King Saul, was on a vicious manhunt with one objective-seek and destroy David.
As Saul and his massive army were making their way through the desert, Mother Nature began to stir in Saul’s belly to the point that he made the entire army stop so he could relieve himself (I promise you I’m not making this stuff up. The Bible is pretty funny if you give it a chance!) So as Saul was searching for a suitable place to go to the bathroom, guess which cave of all the many caves in the area he chose to go into? Yep, you guessed it, David’s cave.
Saul went into the cave, de-robed, pulled out the latest addition of The Jerusalem Times, and took care of business.
David’s men looked at David with a this-is-too-good-to-be-true look in their eyes and then said-“…This is the day the LORD spoke of when He said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’ Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe” (1 Samuel 24:4, NIV).
His men wanted David to kill Saul but David instead just cut off the corner of Saul’s robe. And not only that, 1 Samuel 24:5-7 (NIV) tells us that after David rejoined his men he was, “…conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of [Saul’s] robe. [David] said to his men, ‘The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the LORD.’ With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.”
David let his enemy go even though he had the perfect opportunity to strike him down because he, just like Bobby Jones, was more focused on doing what is right rather than doing what is fair.
If David operated with a do-what’s-fair mindset he would have quickly cut off Saul’s head in that cave and emerged as the rightful king of Israel. David could have easily justified his actions by pointing out that God had already promised him the throne many years ago (1 Samuel 16) and Saul was just trying to delay the inevitable. He could have also pointed to the fact that Saul was trying to kill him so he was only defending himself.
The bottom line is that David could have pointed out a lot of reasons as to why he killed the king but none of those reasons mattered because while it may have been the “fair” thing to do, it wasn’t the “right” thing to do. To kill Saul would be to murder the one whom God currently had in power (1 Samuel 24:6). It would be pulling the wagon in front of the horse by moving faster than God wanted him to.
Which of these two principals do you live by: the fair way or the right way? The fair way will tell you that because your company overworked you last week it’s only fair to use the company card on a personal dinner. The fair way will tell you that because you really love her it’s ok to have sex with her before you’re married. The fair way will tell you that because you need to make a good grade to keep your scholarship it’s ok to look at your neighbor’s paper during a test.
The right way, on the other hand, will always do the right thing regardless of the circumstances. The right way submits to the belief that truth is absolute, not conditional. And the right way, regardless of how difficult it is to believe at the time, trusts that God will take care of the outcome when we choose to do things the right way.
What will govern your decisions today: the fair way or the right way?
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
Email me
©Grant Gaines 2013
