There are days, many days, when I don’t understand why I try to play the game.
Then there are days like Thursday.
On Thursday, our Golf League season commenced. And it turned out OK for me. Pretty darn good, in fact. Much better than I expected.
These things are relative, of course: I had twice as many triple-bogeys on Thursday as I had birdies, after all. But I did card a birdie – and that fact alone had me feeling like I was traipsing in the verdant pastures of Psalm 23:
Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life…
Wish I could bottle that feeling. Wish I could consistently repeat the swing-thoughts and one-putts I produced during my opening round of the season. Alas, 57 years of experience tell me not to expect much time spent on the “right paths” when at the course. Walking “in the dark valley” is a more likely outcome.
But the truth is, good scores aren’t the main reason I play. There’s a deeper benefit at work here – a hole in my spirit that golf regularly fills, even when I’ve not been adept at filling up the cup.
Golf looks like a solo game, you see. But I can’t remember a single time in almost six decades when I headed to the course on my own. I go to be with friends. I play, in large part, to connect with community.
This is a grace in my life, I realize – one particularly well-suited to Good Shepherd Sunday, the Easter feast we celebrate today. Jesus teaches us to find comfort in togetherness, solace as members of the flock. And then He says something rather odd:
I am the gate for the sheep…Whoever enters through Me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture…
Gotta tell you, Lord: You have me scratching my head with that figure of speech. “I am the gate.” It’s a great mystery … kinda like trying to figure out why I play golf, I suppose. Some things simply lie beyond our ability to comprehend.
And today I’m thinking there’s something to be said for resting in the mystery that is You, Lord. Finding repose in You. Discovering all the various and surprising ways in which You deliver on the promise that we “might have life and have it more abundantly.”
I am open to that Gate for sure, Lord…so keep me headed in Your direction. Keep me the right paths.
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 