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It's a Mulligan
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It's a Mulligan
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It's a Mulligan The unfailing lovingkindness (hesed) of the LORD never
end or fail! By His great compassion we have been kept from destruction. His mercies are new every morning, and
great is His Faithfulness. -- Lamentations 3:22-23 AGI You see it was the habit of father Jakob Mulligan to
say to his fellow priests every day, "Top of the morn-in to you, isn't it grand that Christ's mercies are
new every morning to each of us!" Father Jakob Mulligan from then on was known for his
mercy, just like the Saviour he so loved and severed! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you need "a Mulligan"
from God today? -- Well take it! He offers it freely to each of us every morning, really
in truth any time you need one you can have one from Him. But the way I see it, far too many people are afraid
to ask Him for yet another when needed. Why is that? I ask God all the time for that "do-over, that "Mulligan
of His Grace" when I screw-up, and I do screw-up allot. Yet far too many Christians are holding on to things
they really need to let go of, like guilt. They really do need that "do-over" in there life that God
so freely gives to each of us, every new day. He also wants you to remember that on the 8th hole in
Romans, there is a SIGN posted there for all to see who think it's not FAIR you be given another free shot, a Mulligan.
It's what the Holy Spirit has posted: Yes, yes, it's a "Mulligan," so take it please. Barbara <><
Mayim's Endnote
Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness (hesed) in
the morning; for in You do I TRUST (am confident): cause me to intimately KNOW (yada) the way wherein I should
walk, go and grow; for I lift up my soul to You. -- Psalms 143:8 AGI
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Did
you know that each and every morning God give us "a Mulligan." Now you who play the game of golf know
what a Mulligan is, but I'm sure many of you do not know what it is, so let me give you the definition of a Mulligan:
A mulligan, most simply put, is a "do-over." You hit a bad shot in a friendly game of golf, and you take
a Mulligan and replay that stroke.
As you've probably guessed, a Mulligan is never "legal" under the "Rules of Golf." Mulligan's
are most often employed during friendly rounds of golf with good golf buddies. They are also used during charity
or play-day tournaments where Mulligan's are sometimes sold. If Mulligan's are for sale, that means the golfer
can buy, say, three or four Mulligan's for a set price for each one. The sale of Mulligan's is sometimes used as
an additional fund-raiser at charitable events.
But
you might ask yourself, are there rules governing the use of Mulligan's? Well no, there is not! Whatever a group
of friendly golfers agrees upon is what counts.
"Mulligan," in its golf sense, is a relatively new word, but was in common use on golf courses by at
least the 1940s. And there are many, many stories about the birth of the golf term "Mulligan" ... and
it's quite possible that none of them are true. Because nobody really knows how Mulligan acquired its golf meaning
(and like I said before, "a Mulligan" is a "do-over." - Hit a bad shot, take a Mulligan and
try again). And we'll there are many many stories of what Mulligan comes from, but no body knows for sure which
it true.
One
of them comes from The "Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins"; they offer a more ordinary explanation.
It postulates the word Mulligan derives from saloons that, back in the day, would place a FREE bottle of booze
on the bar for customers to dip into. That FREE bottle was called, according to the book, a Mulligan. The term
was adapted to the golf course to denote a "Freebie" to be used by golfers.
But I'm going to give you my own story of how
the name "Mulligan" came into being:
As
the story goes it was two priests, both Irish, one named father Tim (he was the younger of the two), and father
Charles who were playing this new game of golf in Ireland in the early 1900's who named a "Mulligan"
after an older priest they new named father Jakob Mulligan.
Now
both of these priests played very poorly. Each one despaired at how badly they were playing this new game of golf
after six months of playing it every day. You see, they were shown this new game by a much older priest Jakob Mulligan,
and although he was older, much older, he was very very good at the game. And the spirit of competition was upon
father Tim and father Charles one day. And it was father Charles who said, "Isn't it nice that that father
Mulligan is so much like Jesus, whose mercy is new every morning." To which father Tim responded, "Yes,
yes it really is."
Father
Charles replied quickly back to him by saying, "I have played with father Mulligan now for six months and
father Mulligan said Jesus told him the rules of how to play a friendly game and win."
"Really Tim responded, well what is it?"
"It's by allowing you to hit another golf ball when you've hit the first one badly."
The younger priest, father Tim thought about that for a minute, smiled and then proclaimed, "Okay, let's do
that to father Charles, and let us call that extra shot taking a 'Mulligan,' after father Mulligan who does treat
us just like Jesus does when we play golf with him so badly."
Now
for the rest of the story:
Then he'd say, "Let us go and play the greatest game of golf on God's green embroidery hills, it's the finest
place to pray in all the earth."
And so it was that father Jakob Mulligan's mercy that was made known throughout all of Ireland to all golfers everywhere
now in the world.
I love
that story I "made up one morning" as I was pondering God's great green embroidered golf courses which
I saw up in Northern Arizona during the summer. But as I mused what a "Mulligan" means to a golfer, I
thought deep and hard about what it means to "Believers" who needs a "do-over" to ... Life
is rough, getting rougher every year. It is not easy, and we often, like Rabbi Paul fall short of what we want
to do for God. (Read Romans 7 and 8 and you'll know what I am talking about). So of course we take bad strokes
or shots in life some times, and we all need a "Mulligan of God's Grace," which He offers to each of
us EVERY NEW DAY!
I don't know about you my friend, but I need at
least one "Mulligan of God's Grace" every day just to survive. If you do you can say a big Amen!
What about you my friend?
Today
I'm offering you my friend a heaven sent "Mulligan," and I'm sure you really need one ... so come on,
take it, it's free and it is on God's green heavenly embroidered golf course just waiting for you. He says, "Come
let's play, let's pray. And if you pray and play, I will let you win the day."
There is therefore now NO condemnation to them
which are (found to be) in Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus). -- AGI
Can you say "Amen" to that!
Shalom,
