Mistakes at Full Speed
Junior High Football, The U.S. OPEN, and Martin Luther
“If you are going to make a mistake, make it at full speed”
If you played American football, I bet that you heard a coach say something like this along the way. This is one of my favorite examples of coach-speak that has stuck with me through the years, though I am not always great at carrying it out.
This instruction was intended to keep you moving, to prevent one mistake from creating more problems, and to minimize the impact of wrongly executing an assignment. Taking this approach increases your chances at arriving at good endings, even from bad beginnings. For example, if you were supposed to block Player A but you find yourself moving towards Player B, then go at B with full effort. Or, if you are not sure if you are supposed to carry the ball through the “2-hole” or the “4-hole”, pick one and go as hard as you can. The worst thing that you can do in those circumstances is to stop, stand up to full height and dwell on your mistake (or wonder if you’ve made one). When you do that, you give space for your confusion to expose yourself to the worst outcome, which is to do nothing, or to do the wrong thing so poorly that it hurts you twice.
During the second round of the US Open this summer, Sam Burns shot the low round for the day (65). Based on statistics called “strokes gained” (against the field of competitors) in various categories, golf analysts suggested that this round would rank among some of the great rounds of major championship history, though it was not necessarily the lowest score ever, even on that particular golf course.
Why do I mention these things together? Junior High Football and Sam Burns beating everyone else in the field on a Friday in the U.S. Open.
When Sam was interviewed after the round, he said things like this…
“I think at times, trying to be a little too perfect around major championship golf courses, especially around here (Oakmont), honestly it kind of forces you to take your medicine because a lot of times that's the only option you have,”
“I think for this golf course, you really just have to free it up. It’s too hard to try to guide it around here. You’re going to hit some in the rough, you’re going to hit some in some bad spots, you might as well do it with authority.”
“… you might as well do it with authority.”
I loved that line. I will admit that I have a special rooting interest in Sam because he is from North Louisiana, and also because he is connected to my family through his coach, and so I have gotten to hear about Sam’s success and root for him since he was a middle schooler himself.
When you are playing in the US Open the one thing that you can count on is things not going your way. You are going to make mistakes, so make them with conviction. If it puts you in a bunker, take your medicine and go again.1
Martin Luther is often credited with some form of the phrase “Sin boldly.” I remember the first time that I heard something like that, it immediately made me think of a football coach saying, “if your gonna make a mistake, make it at full speed.”
The idea is taken (at least in part) from a letter2 that Luther wrote to another theologian as part of an exchange about whether certain actions were sins or not and whether these things should be allowed or practiced within a congregation. The last paragraph of the letter exhorts his friend this way:
If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2. Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign. It suffices that through God's glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner. There is plenty more to work out here, but on the eve of final major championship of the season and some 42 days since my last post, I submit to you these ramblings with hopes to get one closer to my goal of 52 posts by August 19, 2025.
Cheers.
Sam very visibly and controversially got derailed late in the final round by a tough shot from water and by being twice denied relief from what seemed like standing water. I am just as proud of his response to that situation and hope that he continues to keep “getting up and getting after it.”
https://www.projectwittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/letsinsbe.txt