Month: June 2019

Golf is a lot like life.

If you’re a golfer, you already know what I mean.  If you’ve never played golf, or played golf only a few times in your life, this statement will need a little explaining.  Stay with me, I promise you’ll understand it better towards the end.

As a kid, maybe 8 or 9 years old, I trailed my dad and my uncles around the public links in Andrews, Texas.  These crazy men would get up before daybreak, reach the links when my eyes were barely open, and the sun wasn’t up yet.  They would tee off, play 9 holes, then go pay their fees at the clubhouse at “the turn.”  Nobody rode carts then, except maybe the old farts.  But 8 year-old-legs were not made for 27 to 36 holes of golf in a day.  I loved every minute of it though.

Now I am the old fart.  This cartoon captures innocently enough the round of golf with my father-in-law last week.

By the way, I’m the bow-legged guy on the right, but I don’t have that much hair!

Years ago I had Lasic surgery on my eyes, so I can see down the fairway quite a distance. While I helped Bob see where his ball went several times, he would always try to get in my head about the hazards of my next shot, or the difficulty of the hole.

Getting old isn’t very fun, unless you’re doing something you really love to do.

I gained some clarity about this over the weekend, as I began to evaluate what was important to me in this life.

In golf, the integrity of the game is maintained as each player calls penalties on himself, rather than pointing out other player’s infractions.  That’s what yesterday’s blog post was really all about, “owning it” you might say.

In golf, every day, whether on the same golf course, or on a golf course you’ve never played before… every round offers new opportunities to succeed or fail to make a good score.

In golf, as Ben Hogan is famous for saying, “The most important shot… is the next one.”

Here’s the thing, in LIFE…

• The integrity of your character is owning your own sin, not pointing out someone else’s.
• Every day is a new opportunity to make a difference in someone else’s life, and to bring God glory in doing this.
• Today, right now, this minute … is the equivalent of Ben Hogan’s “the next one.”

Now, here’s the clarity I found.

I enjoy these things today:

• playing golf
• teaching the Bible
• projects around the house
• being in love
• laughing and loving

And you don’t have to be young to do any of these things.

So, find the things you enjoy, the Grace that God extends to you every single day, and live!

Really live.

Honor.

Noun: high respect, greet esteem.

Synonyms:  distinction, glory, tribute, prestige, fame.

Sometimes we use this word in sadness, as when we honor our fallen soldiers on Memorial Day.

Other times we use it as a description of our reactions to the great achievements of someone we know or deem worthy of this praise.

Over this past weekend, my Father-in-Law was recognized in a very special and specific kind of way.  He is 87 years old now, but back in the day Bob Brown was quite an athlete.  In his high school heyday, Bob lettered in Football and Baseball from 1947-1950.  The Lubbock ISD held their annual Hall of Honor Banquet on Saturday, June 15, 2019 to induct 8 individuals and teams into the Hall of Honor.  Each inductee was described in a video which included photographs of their athletic contributions, and an overview of their life since high school. In Bob’s case it was a well deserved tribute to a humble man who kept insisting it was all his teammates which deserved the credit for his accomplishments.

Honor.  In this case it was well-earned and well-recognized.  My wife and I honored him on “Father’s Day” as well, by sharing this weekend with him, and encouraging him in different ways all along the way.  It is my honor to know this man.

God intended us to honor our dads this way.  In fact, it was written in stone, by the very finger of God Himself, as He instructed Moses to tell his people how to behave in their family relationships.

Exodus 20:12 says…

Honor you father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

In this instruction, we see God the Creator, not so much giving us suggestions about how to live, as it is a command accompanied by a carrot and a stick.

The carrot is easy… just honor your mom and dad, and you will live long, happy, protected lives because you live believing this is God’s will for you.

The stick is hard… when you fail to live by God’s commands, there will be hardship, unintended consequences you couldn’t foresee, and unexpected results which often result in tears of sadness.

I know this to be a fact.  I’ve lived it.  I’ve walked in it.  I’m walking through it now.

I can’t go back in time and change how poor a son I was to my own father at times past.  And I can’t make it up to him now because he has graduated to be with the Father who loves us best!  All I can do now, in that relationship, is try to learn from it, and try my best not to make those same mistakes again.

I can’t go back in time to change how poor a father I was at times in the past, to my three children.  I can’t make it up to them in any tangible way, until they decide to open the channels of communication I’ve tried for years to establish.  All I can do now, in each of those relationships, is wait, hope, and trust in the Sovereignty of God to bring us back together.

It’s sad at times, this “honor” thing.

So what’s the point?

When it’s all said and done, the lessons we are learning here have direct application to what happens in eternity.

Jesus said we should pray according to His “Model” of prayer.  Do you remember how it starts?

“Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name…”

Hallowed. Holy.  Sacred. Blessed. Revered.  Honored.

We do our best living, when we determine by our own choosing, to honor God our heavenly Father with our lives.

I trust today that on the heals of Father’s Day weekend, you find yourself in God’s will, having honored your earthly father as he deserves, and your heavenly Father who deserves it even more.

On Sunday, I thanked God for my earthly father, and trusted Him to tell my dad how much I love him still, and miss him now.

Did you do something similar?  Just as God commanded?

I hope so.