Your foursome drew the first tee time of the morning.

The first footsteps in the dew leading to the tee box are yours. It’s a perfect day, and you’ve got a good feeling about this initial drive that you’ve been practicing in your mind all the way from the house. It’s going to be the start to a great round of 18. Maybe your best ever. You’re relaxed, confident. You address the ball, check the path you intend for the ball to follow. Then you swing…

Golf is an incredibly complex game, one that requires not only physical skill—form and technique —but mental control. It takes tremendous focus, concentration, and determination. One of the great things about the game is that it’s truly an individual sport. How you play doesn’t depend on the skill or condition of your teammates—or even your opponents. Every time you step up to the tee, you’re competing against yourself.

Of course, that’s also the downside. Because although golfers through the centuries have come up with pretty creative excuses for poor play, ultimately your success or failure is all on your own shoulders. When things go badly, there’s no one else to blame.

As a pro once observed, “Golf is the only sport I know of where a player pays for every mistake. A man can muff a serve in tennis, miss a strike in baseball, or throw an incomplete pass in football, and still have another chance to square himself. But in golf, every swing counts against you” (Professional golfer Lloyd Mangrum).

That’s just one of the many ways the game imitates life. Like golf, life has its own set of complicated rules. It’s impossible to keep them all perfectly. At some point or another, every one of us gets distracted. We lose our concentration, exercise poor judgment, or exhibit bad sportsmanship. We make mistakes. At times we’re way out of bounds.

The Bible calls this “sin.” It also tells us it’s par for the course. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But the penalty for sin is far more severe than a couple of strokes—or even disqualification. “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23). Not just physical death, but spiritual death: hell —eternal separation from God.

God, in his mercy, made a way to wipe out the sins of our past, present, and future—the ultimate “mulligan.” He sent Jesus to die on the cross and take the penalty for us. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Thanks to Jesus, we can not only have the hope of heaven, but a completely clean scorecard. A fresh start. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We can also have his grace, his strength, his peace to guide us on life’s course.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

If you’re ready to have your scorecard wiped clean—if you want to begin a new life through Jesus Christ, you might pray something like this:

Dear God,
I realize I have missed the mark—I’ve been way out of bounds. I’m a sinner in need of a Savior. Thank you for sending your Son Jesus to pay the penalty for me. Please forgive me and help me to play by your rules. I want to live my life in a way that brings glory to you. Amen.