Today’s find: Soaked

We golfers are a curious breed. Generally, we’re reasonable chaps – with enough sense to come in outta the rain.

But once we’re on the course?  Not so much.

Perhaps the camaraderie of the 19^th Hole (after the round has been completed) has something to do with that. I noticed this week, for example, that many of us had stories to share…of the drenching we endured last week at Aberdeen.

A fellowship of foolishness, you might say: More than a few of the League members recounted how they’d huddled-in-place under rickety bumbershoots at various spots around the course – waiting for the cloudburst to pass.

Uh…yeah: Might be time to call it a day.

Waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

Until at last the fleeting rivulets forming on the fairways convinced us it was time to make the dreary trek back to the clubhouse.

Great stories, even if (or perhaps because) we ourselves served as the punchlines. “Well sure, I waited it out: I had my best round of the season going…”

And a good soaking can precipitate a blessing, I suppose.

It can offer a timely reminder…not to take oneself quite so seriously. (It’s hard to remain puffed up, after all, when one notices that a half-inch of rainwater has puddled inside one’s golf shoes.)

Trudging toward redemption…

Then soon enough, along comes Sirach…to offer golf-dolts like me a path to redemption, in the wake of the deluge:

Humble yourself the more, the greater you are,
 and you will find favor with God.
 What is too sublime for you, seek not,
 into things beyond your strength search not.

A lesson worth pondering, even as one wonders whether those Foot-Joys will ever dry out.

“I think I see a break in the clouds…”

Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.

IHS