Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. (Deuteronomy 8:2, NIV)
Rory McIlroy and Ryan Moore were only making their way back to the eighteenth tee for the second playoff hole at the Tour Championship when Kevin Chappell found himself already pressed for an interview.
Sometimes the lessons are supposed to be slow in coming…they are meant for another season.Chappell had been a third participant in this playoff, but his par on the first wasn’t enough and his stellar week ended just like that. After explaining that he had probably let the tournament slip through his fingers on the last two holes of regulation play, Chappell was asked what he might take away from the week.
Truth is, Chappell’s answers were good—that his game was in excellent shape and that it is so very hard to win on the Tour. But consider this for a moment: the dust had yet to settle and Chappell was already expected to glean the essential lessons from the experience. Apparently, reflection and learning are supposed to happen as quickly as a missed birdie putt closes the door on your season.
Now I’ll admit, that would be nice. In the midst of my worst days, it is tempting to pray, “Lord, I know you’re taking me through this for a reason. Just show me what it is and we’ll get on with it.” Do you also hear the words underneath all those: You know I have more important things to do, right?
It is hard to remember when our trials last a week, a month, a year, that sometimes the lessons are supposed to be slow in coming, that they are meant for another season. Sometimes “the secret things of God” (Deuteronomy 29:29) are kept secret from us until the time we need them.
You may recall Corrie ten Boom’s story of a conversation with her father. As a ten-year-old child, she asked her father what sexual sin was. He paused for a time, then asked her to carry a heavy suitcase from the train they had been riding. She told him the suitcase was far too heavy for her. He answered, “Yes. And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It’s the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.”
Then Corrie wrote this about her memory of that day: “And I was satisfied. More than satisfied—wonderfully at peace. There were answers to this and all my hard questions. For now I was content to leave them in my father’s keeping.”
Some lessons may come today. Others will have to wait 40 years and more. Our task of faith is to trust that every lesson is in our Father’s keeping.
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Jeff Hopper
October 3, 2016
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.