I’ve said many times that I wouldn’t get out of the electric chair to play golf. I think the guy who invented it needs to be strung up and flogged. My sons used to love to hunt, fish, camp, hike, water ski, and do all sorts of outdoor things with me, but when they got hooked on golf those noble and worthy undertakings were dumped like a hot rock for that stupid game.
Several years ago I decided to take up golf in order to spend at least a little time with them. I bought the best clubs money could buy, took lessons from a professional golfer, and began to learn the game of golf. I never did really develop a liking for the game, and I grew to especially detest the freakish nature of it. By that I mean one day I played excellent, and the next day I would play horrible for no apparent reason.
I remember the day I quit quite well. The previous day I’d shot the best game of my life, ending up in the low eighties. I was so impressed with myself that I took the following day off work to play the same course. It was a beautiful day and I felt great and was ready to excel again. By the 12th hole I was already at 120 and my ball landed right in the middle of a lake. I walked over to a tree and swung mightily, breaking my very expensive club in half. I hurled the remainder of it into the lake and insanely looked at one of my sons and snarled through gritted teeth, “If you want the rest of my clubs you can have them; otherwise I’m going to throw them in the lake right now”. He smiled and said sure he’d love to have them; (the smile disappeared when he saw the rage on my face).
I turned on my heel and stalked all of the way back to my car at the clubhouse, drove home, and have never played again. Who would invent a game that no one can win? One day you’re great and the next you’re terrible. As far as I could tell nothing had changed overnight; I was in a great mood; played the same course I had done so well on the previous day; used the same clubs, same golf balls, same swing, (at least as far as I could tell) and disaster.
Arghhhhh!
So this weekend I went fishing with my good friend Orlando First Baptist Church minister David Uth, (pronounced youth) and his family. We arrived at one of Honey Lake’s trophy bass ponds just as the sun was breaking daylight and we caught so many trophy fish it was amazing. I personally caught five bass that were in the 6 to 8 1/2 lb. range and several smaller ones in less than an hour. At one point I was catching a bass with practically every cast and they were doing likewise. It was glorious!
The Uth family left around noon, but that evening I took the father of one of our employees and the employee to the exact same pond, using the exact same lures, but we did not fare nearly as well. He told me he’d never caught so many Bass (that big) in his life and had a great time, but I was sorely disappointed, (mad as a hornet), and spent most of my time sitting in my idling air conditioned truck watching them fish and doing e-mail on my I-Phone, (and yes, I was sulking).
Even though my afternoon fishing trip was a bust for catching fish, (according to my lofty standards), unlike golf, I did not give up fishing and I did not break my fishing rods by swinging them with all my might into a tree. I took it all in stride and actually had fun watching them catching fish, squealing for joy, and taking photos of their trophies.
As I watched them I thought that on some days fish bite really well, and other days they just sit and stare and won’t bite, even if you were to throw a T-Bone steak right in front of their ugly snouts.
Sigh . . .
Hmmm . . . I wonder why God designed the world with ups and downs. One minute we’re basking in the sun on the peak grinning like a jackass eating briars and the next we are deep down in the darkness of the valley crying “Woe is me”. God hasn’t explained that one to me, but I think He designed things that way so that we will appreciate the good times when we are blessed with them. If every time we hit a golf ball we got a hole in one, or every time we went fishing we loaded the boat, it seems to me it would get incredibly boring after a while and we would just quit.
Poppycock! I cannot tell a lie. I like to win and I want to load the boat – every time! I don’t care if it’s good for me or not, I’d rather sit on the peak and bask in the warm sun smiling like a jackass and never be in the valley crying…
So I suppose the lesson for the day is that we should just accept the bad times in stride, knowing that the good times are right around the corner. Right?
If our Monday isn’t all that great today, just wait until tomorrow; it will be glorious!
Bah! I want every day to be a good one!
Hmmm . . . God is good all of the time and heaven is too. I want to be like Jesus!
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.