The Challenge of Golf

The only time my prayers are never answered is on the golf course.  Billy Graham

I like to play golf.  I am not really any good at it but it challenges me.  There is nothing like it when you take an easy swing and the ball sails through the air.  It’s all the other shots that can make you wonder why you chase a little white ball around an 18 hole golf course. 

The interesting thing about golf is that it is the great equalizer.  You can be 4’10” or 6’4” and still compete no matter your size. I have lots of golf stories so I am going to share one of my favorites or in this case most embarrassing. 

I will never forget the time my Uncle Mickey took my dad, brother and me to play golf in Austin.  Did I mention that when people watch you hit that first shot it can make you choke?  All golf courses have the first tee box near the clubhouse.  It makes sense because that is where you check in.  So we went to this exclusive golf course and I got up on the ladies tee box and choked.  I couldn’t hit the ball and when I tried all I did was make a big divot, or in this case a large hole.  For you non-golfers, a divot is a piece of turf torn up by a golf club in striking a ball. 

I had several problems that day. There are times when it is good to have a divot but the divot should be small and should only throw a small amount of grass and dirt in the air.  My divots were more like the size of saucers.  My second problem was the course Marshall was sitting in his golf cart watching me tear up the tee-box.  When I got finished with that tee box it looked like the gopher in Caddie Shack had taken up residence. I don’t know if they ever give out fines for tearing up a golf course with a golf club, but I am sure the Marshall thought I deserved one or at the very least, banishment from the course. They would do a mug shot of me and hang it in the clubhouse so that if I ever crossed the threshold again they would escort me out. 

When I was thinking of this long ago memory, I started thinking about how God sometimes uses the least of us for His purpose.  I started writing my own devotionals in 2012.  It took a lot of encouragement from people close to me who saw potential in there somewhere.  I am not the best writer or grammarian and if you read something profound in anything I write it can only be God.  Sometimes I look back over what I write and think “where did that come from” and my immediate answer is always “God”. 

Do you remember the story of Gideon?  An Angel of the Lord appeared to him and called him a mighty man of valor.  He told him he would save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.  Gideon responds by saying he is the weakest in Manasseh and the least in his father’s house.  God responded by telling him He would be with him.  That should be enough for any of us.  God is with us.

If God can use me in even the smallest capacity to encourage or lift someone up, He can use you too.  The thing to remember is to step back and let Him work.  You will be amazed at what can happen.      

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I still have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to read what I write.  When someone emails me and tells me how much something that I wrote touched them, I stop and praise You.  You are where the words come from, I am just the instrument You use to speak them.  I praise You for your many blessings and helping others to see You through the stories I tell.  May You be glorified in everything I do.   

Scripture: Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”

Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”

Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”

So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”  Judges 6:11-16