“Trust the Lord with all your heart; don’t rely on what you
think you know.” – Proverbs 3:5
A cool breeze danced among the tall
pines outside the Willows Golf Club. As had become customary, Roy spent many a
summer afternoon out on the verandah with his grandson Chase who’d just
finished his first sub-100 round. Not
bad for an 11 year old. The pair watched
in silence as golfers hooked and sliced through the valley below.
Roy hadn’t played the game since various materials replaced
the rubber-wound insides of a golf ball, yet as a spectator, he still found
pleasure in the pastime. His gaze passed
from an icy glass of lemonade to the ragged foursome struggling up the hill to
the ninth green.
One was zigzagging about the fairway like a bumblebee chasing
nectar. Two others seemed to be digging
for buried treasure. The remaining duffer
had just foozled an approach shot and berated his young caddie for coughing
during his up-swing.
“Few people,” said Roy, “have the proper golfing temperament? Judging by what I see, many possess no qualification at all except money enough for the drinks at the end of the
round.”
“Secondly, and this is critical young man,” Roy emphasized
by looking Chase straight in the eye, “loosen your grip. It’s counter intuitive . . . but it works!”
“Wouldn’t a tight grip and a lot of force make the ball
travel farther?” Chased asked.
“Just the opposite,” Roy responded. “When you try to hit a golf ball with a tight
grip, your arms stiffen and your entire body gets rigid. The ball doesn’t usually respond well. But with a loose grip, your arms and body are
flexible and fluid, and often the ball sails farther through the air.”
“Life is that way too,” Roy continued. “We tend to choke up when we’re put in
pressure situations. We get overly anxious
about its outcome; unsure about our
ability to cope and too dependent on the results.”
“Life throws us all kinds of balls: worm-burners,
rain-makers, shanks, and yanks. But God
is the only one who knows what’s coming.
When we relax our grip on life and focus on Jesus, then we have the
potential that He’s given us to split the fairway or even knock a hole-in-one.”
“Until next week,” Roy declared setting his lemonade on the
table and motioning Chase to follow.
Lord, help me loosen my grip on life as You tighten Yours on mine; Help me quit trying to not only control situations but people. Be the one I go to for security and the one who directs YOUR way rather than MY way. Amen
