Today’s find: PGA Champions

More than once yesterday, I found my patience being tested out on the course. “Man, these guys are playing SLOW…” I thought to myself. (And maybe I even griped about it out loud.)

The difference in this case is that I was watching professionals, not following along behind fellow hacks in my weekly Golf League. It’s not at all an unusual occurrence (unfortunately) in the latter case for an entire hole to open up between one group and the foursome behind. But on a professional circuit like the PGA Champions Tour, they actually have rules in place – pace-of-play requirements that can cost you strokes (i.e. money) if you fall too far behind.

Knowing that, it was more than a little surprising to witness gaps on several different occasions yesterday, as my Best Golf Buddy and I trudged along trying to watch the “seasoned pros” play at the Ascension Charity Classic.

“Gaps” were one source of bemusement. “Flubbed shots” were another. A couple of different times, I saw major and minor champions play like they belonged more with me and my league mates than in the company of touring professionals.

One big difference, though: the pros minimized the damage. Their errant shots got compartmentalized, put away, forgotten about. In my world – Home of Hackers – such flubs and floozles often bloom into full-blown calamity. Why? Because we tend to dwell on them. We allow mistakes to take up a long-term lease in our minds and hearts.

Golf is good about teaching us such spiritual lessons, if our ears are open. The great prophet Isaiah is good at it, too, as we learn in this week’s first reading.

Thus says the LORD: Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, [coming] with vindication; with divine recompense [God] comes to save you.

Not that God really gives a hoot who wins the PGA Champions tournament this weekend. But I think God does desire our wholeness, our wellness. Jesus kinda proves that point in today’s gospel passage when he cures a man of his impediments. Notice, though, that there’s no promise in scripture about avoiding disaster altogether. Stuff happens, even (and at times especially it seems) to faith-filled people. 

So as I meditate on that fact…and on God’s promise of recompense…I’m wondering whether perhaps a more deliberate pace of play might actually be called for at certain times in our lives. When we slow down, and look back, we can often see evidence of God’s saving power at work.

Maybe it’s not a gap we’re witnessing, after all. Not a gap, but God’s glory…advancing in a measured and determined motion to enfold and transform our broken world.

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

IHS