Swing Control

Spiritual Exercise: Mindfulness (wk. 8/13)

Reading: 2 Corinthians 10:1-6

Slight deviation in programming as we leave the gym to look at the golf world and its current greatest athlete, Scottie Sheffler. More than anything he has become renowned for his mental fortitude and amazing swing control. In order to grow in mental fortitude within our faith we have been told to capture our thoughts. Our thoughts can range from shame to overly justifying bad behavior - big swings. In order to capture our thoughts, we must have swing control. 

In golf, it is a game of “managed misses” and directing your thoughts towards the shot you want to see. “I don’t want to hit it in the bunker” increases the likelihood of hitting it in the bunker. We can feel a lot of shame when “bunker” thoughts happen. Thoughts of anger, bitterness, contempt, inappropriate sexual thoughts, or thoughts of self-harm. We can start to spiral not just because of the thoughts themselves but because of the intensity of the thoughts. As a result, we find ourselves “in the bunker” often and spend a lot of time there.

When golfers miss a lot of putts, they can start to say, “I am a bad putter” and reinforce that belief every time they miss a putt. Thoughts repeated enough times turn into beliefs about ourselves. We create an identity around the thought. Along with this identity we then start to justify our thoughts.

“I am just a cynical person.”

“I am just not good at relationships.”

“I am just lazy.”

“I always overeat.”

“I am just a passionate person.”

“I can’t trust myself.”

These thoughts reinforce an identity, and our identity then drives our behavior.

All of these are “bad swings.” So how do we control the swing and capture our thoughts?

Paul writes to the church of Corinth about competing views within the church. The arguments were about our nature, Paul’s leadership, about how to discipline ourselves and each other. We can take these same bold arguments and apply them to the internal arguments we have within ourselves.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 “since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

“Strongholds and pride” are a great depiction for our strong identity statements that keep us stuck believing the negative thoughts that justify our “flesh” behavior. This is a critical component of where to start. Our old identity, our stronghold, doesn’t hold up against the knowledge and power of God. We can no longer agree with the old identity when we believe God has the power to change it.

Philippians 3:13-14, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.”

Now our old identity and pride is removed, but the other swing is still left, shame. This is why “obeying Christ” is so beautiful. Obedience can feel like punishment and is painful. But obedience in Christ means not staying stuck in shame. We must have as many tools as we can to remind us of who Christ is and His redemption power.

Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus”

Romans 10:11, “For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.”

Romans 10:13, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Isaiah 54:4, “Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame; don’t be humiliated, for you will not be disgraced. For you will forget the shame of your youth.”

These are practice swings. Repetitions at removing the shame and redirecting our thoughts. When a “bad swing” thought rooted in shame or stronghold happens we capture it by focusing on what we CAN do. “I can use this club to cover the bunker on the right” is a captured swing thought. We can be objective about the strongholds. We can be gracious to heal the shame. We control the swing.

Questions for Reflection:

What recurring thoughts have you felt the most ashamed about?

What identity have you created around those thoughts?

What new thoughts are you willing to adopt whenever those old thoughts arise?