A change in scenery, they say, can provide a soothing balm for the spirit.
Maybe that’s what I had going for me on Friday, as we wrapped up the Golf League season by playing our Championship match at Birch Creek. Located about 20 miles west of our “home course,” it’s a track with which I’m only passingly familiar, having played there maybe five or six times before.
Much of the layout seemed “new” to me then – and perhaps that’s why my game felt unencumbered by memories of previous failures.
Previous and grievous failures, this season anyway. How else to describe a five-month slog that saw my average net score in our weekly matches descend from “league-leading” last year…to “dead last” this year?
Suffice it to say, I didn’t have a whole lot of fun out on the course this summer. But the script flipped on Friday at Birch Creek – and I recorded a second wild swing in my overall performance in as many seasons. Somehow, I managed to take first place for the B Flight in our championship match (along with a couple of “skill” prizes to boot).
Go figure: A lousy season turns into something joyful at the end…
There’s a modicum of personal athleticism in this result, I suppose. But if I’m being honest, the real difference in my game was all about attitude – a change in mind and spirit. My Sweetie (bless her heart) pointed out in recent weeks how angry I’d become following my frequent golf failures. A game that’s supposed to be fun was instead dragging me down, darkening my mood week after week. So I kinda took that observation of hers to prayer – and asked the Lord for a change of heart.
We really shouldn’t be surprised when God answers such a prayer, I guess. It’s exactly what the Holy One has been promising us for thousands of years. Notice how Jesus praises the “first son’s” change of heart in this week’s gospel passage, echoing the wisdom found in the first reading from Ezekiel:
But if [one] turns from the wickedness he has committed, and does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
In his book Interior Freedom, Father Jacques Philippe suggests how fruitful this sort of spiritual discipline can be: “consenting [rather than rebelling or resigning ourselves] to what we did not originally choose…We show the greatness of our freedom when we transform reality, [and] still more when we accept it trustingly as it is given to us day after day.”
In my case, on the course, “reality” is a golf swing that’s not nearly as supple or consistent as it was once-upon-a-time. And in recent months, my choice – often – has been to rebel against these physical limitations.
But lately, I’ve taken to repeating a simple mantra after an errant shot: “joy, joy, joy.” It’s rarely the emotion I’m actually feeling when I begin the chant…but by the time I’m finished with it, I notice that my mood has lifted a bit, I’m less encumbered by anger, and I’m actually more free to follow a bad swing with a good one.
In the process, I’ve been delighted to discover an unexpected blessing – how God’s soothing Spirit can be found even in a day’s wildest swings.
Truth: Pleasant companions can add much grace to any round of golf, even before any scores have been posted.
“Your ways make known to me, O Lord; teach me your paths…” – Psalm 25
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 