I distinctly remember the last game of golf I shot. Just the day before I’d shot an 88, (which for me was outstanding). I was in fact so thrilled with my improved ability, I decided to take the next day off and play the same course. The weather was great; I was spending quality time with one of my sons; and I was in a terrific mood when we teed off.
By the end of the round I was livid, (as in furious). I ended up shooting 120 and my last shot which overlooked a pond ended up in the water, (three separate times). Finally I picked up my ball and threw it across the stinking pond. I was exasperated to the point of hyperventilating, and I told my son that if he wanted my expensive golf clubs he could have them; otherwise; I was going to throw them in the pond. He was quick to say I’ll take them!
He took them and I never played golf again. I suspect that whoever invented that game was a sadist. One day you can perform skillfully and the next, (although nothing has changed and you are in a good mood on the exact same course), you can shoot horribly. What kind of game is that? With most things in life you learn, you practice, you develop skill and you win. With golf the only winner is golf. One day you are excellent and the very next day you are pitiful. Even pros like Tiger Wood experience this phenomenon.
And people call this fun?????
Bah! It isn’t fun to lose.
I took up whitetail hunting to avoid the angst and yesterday I went to my deer stand for a fun morning’s hunt. I walked in before daylight and got comfortable on my stand and enjoyed seeing meteors streaking through the inky star-studded sky. I sat there as daylight broke and for about an hour afterwards and didn’t see the first deer.
I was disgusted because I wasn’t seeing anything and also began to feel guilty because I’m so far behind on my work, and finally decided to just go on to my home office and try to make a dent in the mounds of unanswered e-mails, phone calls, and get caught up on some of the projects that have been piling up since hunting season began.
I was sitting at my desk and happened to notice something out of the corner of my eye and as I looked out my window, I saw a whitetail buck walking through my front yard. He stopped and eyed the life size bronze of a doe and two fawns in my butterfly garden located in the concrete turnaround in front of my house. He eyed it longingly, (they are in the rut right now), but I suppose realized that something was awry and he took off running with his nose to the ground. He ran right across my concrete driveway and out of sight into the waist high native grass.
Hmmm . . . Yes I realized the irony in this. No I’m not going to give my guns away and/or quit hunting. After reflection upon this incident, I’ve resolved to better understand that some days we just can’t win. Losing on occasion is as big a part of life as winning. We will win some and we will lose some. That is difficult for a high energy, CEO class “A” personality like me, but as Paul Harvey used to say, “That’s the way it is”.
Now I wonder if the good Lord sent that whitetail buck running through my yard deliberately. Did He smile or perhaps even chuckle a little when I looked out my window and saw it? Did He whisper in my ear to remind me that I just went hunting and sat on a stand in freezing cold weather in total darkness and watched the sun come up and didn’t see a blasted thing for over an hour only to come home and see one came running through my front yard? Was He mocking my hunting skills?
No I don’t think God “mocks” people, but I do think He sends little lessons our way now and then to help us understand this world in which we live. I must be candid with you; I do not like to lose. It is the reason I cannot watch a live football game and instead pre-record it and after learning the score will only will watch the pre-recorded game if the team that I want to win – actually won the game; otherwise I delete it in disgust.
I know – I know – It’s a sickness.
We cannot win all of the time and this little lesson reinforced it to me all the more. God set it up like that, and in my mind that means there is a perfect reason for it and I accept it. I still don’t like losing, but I’m not going to quit hunting because I don’t win every time and I’m going to work on this problem area of my life this upcoming year and it has already been added to my goals for self improvement.
Losing a few will mean that I enjoy winning all the more when I do finally succeed. And when I finally harvest that old mossy horn whitetail buck I will fondly look back at the frustrations I incurred along the way to get there, and it will make it far more meaningful. I will remember this day and ruefully smile when all ends well.
The Bible makes it clear that we should run a race as though to win the prize. I think the Lord enjoys our having a competitive spirit as long as it doesn’t become a sickness. There is one area of winning where we need to focus as never before and winning is absolutely essential though, and that is our eternal salvation. The stakes are high and the rewards are great . . . I’m like Paul in this one, I myself will not be disqualified for this prize.
1 Corinthians 9:24
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.