Mark 0:00

Have you ever watched someone do something that wasn't wrong, but your brain immediately told you that it was? Like something just felt off. I've got a brother who plays golf left-handed. And if if you're a golfer, you already know where I'm going with this. There's just something weird about watching a left-handed golfer. They walk up to the T-box, they put the T in the ground, they set the ball down, and then they walk on the other side. And man, every right-handed golfer watching this has had the same thought. That looks weird. Not not bad, not wrong or incorrect, just just weird. And my brother, who again is left-handed, he even admits it. He'll watch another left-handed golfer swing and say, man, that looks really strange. Which is hilarious because he's literally watching someone do the same exact thing he does. Hey guys, what can we learn from somebody that swings from the wrong side of the golf ball? Stick around. So about 90% of golfers are right-handed. So our eyes have been trained to watch thousands of right-handed golfers. Tiger Woods, we've watched Rory, we've watched our buddies play right-handed. Man, guys like Michael Vick, who throw the ball left-handed, are fascinating to watch. Guys like Jalen Brunson, who plays for the New York Knicks basketball, to watch him shoot left-handed free throws or left-handed passes. It's just weird. It's like in the matrix. I've got a four-year-old grandson who is left-handed. I'm trying to teach him how to play golf left-handed and I'm right-handed. And I've shown him how to grip the golf club about a hundred times, which is obviously the opposite of how I grip it. And every single time I show him or correct him on his grip, I have to stop and say, wait a minute, step back. Let me step back. Let me figure out what I'm is it what is it this way? Is it I mean, it just like it short circuits my brain, and I don't know why. It's like trying to do something in the mirror, trying to do something on your face, put your makeup on, or trying to pick something off your face in the mirror. It's weird, it's backwards. It's not how our brain works. It's very confusing. But we know what a right-handed swing is supposed to look like. But then the lefty gets up there, and and suddenly it feels like, again, somebody just flipped the video. Uh, everything is backwards. The club is on the wrong side, the turn is going the wrong direction, the finish looks backwards, and then they absolutely stripe one down the middle. That's that's kind of what's shocking is to see somebody do it and then say, wow, okay, that that that actually works. I mean, that sounds weird to say, but like watching somebody hit a left-handed golf ball, watching somebody throw a left-handed football, watching a pitcher pitch left-handed, watching somebody shoot a basketball left-handed, swing a tennis racket left-handed, and then they perform, and that's like, wow, okay, now my brain really doesn't work well. But there's a suddenly a realization that hits me whenever I see that happen and I see them execute at a really high level. I say, I say, wait a second, it wasn't wrong, it just it just wasn't what I'm used to. And I wonder how often we do that in life. How often do we confuse different with wrong? Someone thinks differently than me, someone communicates differently, they worship differently, they process life differently, they approach problems differently than I would. And somewhere along the way, even without realizing it, we start believing that our way is the normal way. And if our life is normal, their way must be strange. But man, scripture paints it a different way, as it usually does, and it teaches us what different actually looks like. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 17, Paul talks about this, and he says, if the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell come from? But as it is, God arranged the members in our body, each one of them as he chose. Paul is saying that God intentionally created differences, different gifts, different personalities, different strengths, different perspectives, because the body doesn't function when every part is doing the exact same thing. Imagine showing up to the golf course with 14 drivers in your bag. Now, some of you are probably thinking that that kind of sounds like a lot of fun. And honestly, I get it. But somewhere around the first bunker shot, you're gonna realize that there was a purpose for the other clubs. The sand wedge doesn't look like a driver intentionally. The putter doesn't look like a seven-iron. But different doesn't mean defective, different means designed. And maybe one of the greatest signs of spiritual maturity is when we stop asking, why aren't they more like me? And start asking, what is God showing me through them? Jesus modeled this constantly. One of the things that drove religious leaders absolutely bonkers was who Jesus spent time with: tax collectors, fishermen, the sick, the outcasts, people everyone else looked and thought, that that doesn't look right. That's not the person Jesus should be hanging out with. But Jesus saw something they couldn't see. I'm reminded of 1 Samuel chapter 16, verse 7, when God reminds Samuel, the Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. We are really good at noticing the outside. And God is really good at looking into something deeper. I think about how many friendships we miss because someone is standing on the wrong side of the ball, how many conversations we avoid, how many lessons we never learn, simply because someone's approach looks backwards to us. Here's the humbling part. To them, we might be the lefty. We might be the one who looks strange. Maybe they're looking at our swinging thinking, what in the world is that guy doing? And sometimes seeing life from another angle is exactly what we need. The next time you get paired with a left-handed golfer, before you judge the backward swing, just wait, watch the shot, and you might learn something. Because God has a long, illustrious history of using people who don't look the way everyone expects. The shepherd boy became a king. The fishermen became disciples. The cross that looked like defeat became victory. Sometimes what looks backwards from our perspective makes perfect sense from God's. Different isn't always wrong. Sometimes it's just a different kind of right. Hey guys, thanks for joining me this week. My name is Mark. This is Shanktification. Please like, share, and subscribe, and I will talk to you next week. And in the meantime, keep chasing better.