To Count or Not

I mentioned before that I am reading the Ortberg book "When the Game is Over, it all Goes Back in the Box." The chapter I am reading now talks about living richly toward God -- giving of ourselves to God. He also talks about how we keep score in life, just as we do in the games that we play.

He mentioned that people keep score in golf, and it reminded me of a statement that a friend made once -- that when he plays poorly at golf, his response is to be disappointed in himself. On the other hand, Steve and I learned a wondeful lesson from this friend and his wife (our other friend). When they play miniature golf, they don't keep score. We tried that this summer, and it was wonderful. Steve (who is our score-keeper) is releaved of that duty, the boys aren't depressed when they don't do well, and everyone's attitude is much more pleasant.

I wondered if this friend ever plays golf without keeping score. Radical idea, isn't it?

JtM and I are once again co-treaching a class, this time on Yancey's Prayer book.

Sitting at lunch, thinking about this, my mind wandered to our class. Usually, I am the one who keeps attendance (or Steve does), and I count the number of people who attended each Wednesday, who had been there this week but not last. I've been worried about this class. Registration has been smaller than for previous classes.

I wondered what would happen if I did not take attendance. I realized that I use counts to judge the vitality of the program. I decided today, in Wendy's, that I would not record attendance for the class. This is hard for me, but I think I've been relying on the count too much, so no counting. Just gratitude for who joins us on this journey.

I think this might be one way to live richly toward God -- to give him my trust.