Golf is Hard!

On Monday I played golf with some friends.  It was an odd group because it was me, two high schoolers, and an elder in our church.  Not to make elders really old, but he is not a spring chicken.  So the day started off early because our tee time was at 7:40 am and then it became strange because two of us were late since we forgot to tell the new guy about wearing a polo shirt.  I still think golf rules are weird.  Anyway, we finally got started and I was all set to have my best game ever.  The reason I thought it would be the best game ever was because last week I played with some guys and I really did have my best game ever.  I every got a birdie, and it wasn’t after a lot of bad shots that didn’t count. 

So back to the current game.  As we started to hit I got up and was ready to smash the ball all the way down the fairway.  Looking at the game I was focused and just destroying it.  Lifting my club all the way up, all I could think about was what an awesome shot this was going to be.  As the club came back down with a hiss of the the wind and crack, I hit the ball.  And to my horror the ball didn’t go straight, far, or even on the fairway.  My first shot of the day pulled hard right into some rocks in front of the water about 100 feet in-front of.  Well it probably wasn’t 1oo feet, but just to make me feel better we will say it was.

Drive after drive I tried to hit a good shot and I just couldn’t do it.  I kept trying and everything just seem to get worse and nothing was working for me.  It was tiring, long, and hot.  All I wanted was a good shot and I couldn’t get it.  Finally I thought I should just stop and do something else because this is obviously not working for me.  Everything was telling me that golf is not for me and that I should try something else or just go back to the things I have always done.

At the time I didn’t think anything about all this and I just wanted to get a good shot, but then I started thinking that a lot of people have experiences as Christians that are similar to my golfing experience.  The people become Christians and read about all the good things that happen to Christians and everyone talks about what God has done for them.  There in lies that problem.  Christians always talk about what God has done for them and that you should be a Christian because God can do the same thing for you.  But Christians never share about the struggles, problems, heart ache, pain, and suffering that they sometimes have to go through in order to be happy.  When someone becomes a Christian they think that everything will be ok now, but that is not true always true.  So when the problems happen and everything doesn’t go as planned, they think that something must be wrong and that maybe they should quite.  They think they should either find something else or go back to the things they were doing before.  Romans 6:3-5 tells us that sufferings produce perseverance and perseverance character and character hope and that hope does not disappoint because God has poured out his love in our heart.  You see, God allows suffering so that we will grow.  Not to beat us down and destroy us, but to help us grow closer to him and to realize what really makes us happy.

So when the going gets tough, the tough rely on God!