For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. (1 Timothy 6:7, NKJV)
The seventh hole at the Olympic Club’s Lake Course, where the US Women’s Open was contested this year, is a tiny, uphill test. For the long hitters, it’s drivable, something I discovered firsthand when defending champion A Lim Kim’s tee ball landed only a few yards from my feet as I watched greenside last Thursday, then bounced up right in front of me.
Unlike its more famous neighbor, the eighteenth, the trick to the seventh hole is not what it demands off the tee, though. Instead it’s the two-tiered green.
On Thursday, the flag was located just shy of the rise from front to back—and what a rise it is. If the ball finishes up top, you’ll be wild-guessing like Cristie Kerr, who putted at a 90-degree angle away from the hole, only to see her ball hang on the apron, leading her to need a 10-footer just to three-putt (which she did). But if your approach lands too high on the backstop or cautiously too short, the wedge’s spin will bring the ball right back off the front of the green.
So here was Kim, almost greenside on what was checking in as the easiest scoring hole of the day. But her ball sat down in the thick Open rough and her slashing attempt at a lob carried too far, landed up top and left her hoping for no worse than a bogey (which is what she made, though she needed a six-footer to do so).
The trouble in life—whether or not we live on a farm—is that we get to counting our chickens too early.
Sometimes in golf, we call a simple hole “a birdie hole,” as though this is close to certain. We all have the scars of double bogey to remind us how wrong this hope can prove to be.
The trouble in life—whether or not we live on a farm—is that we get to counting our chickens too early. We’re ready to circle the birdies on life’s scorecard, and we haven’t even gotten out of bed, where we might discover the fridge has quit, or the ignition won’t turn over, or the boss has laid off half the staff, or the cute little one is somehow sitting in the principal’s office waiting for a verdict on his first big transgression. And let’s admit it, these are modest interruptions compared to some of the bad news that can come to a family or community.
While Ben Franklin gets much of the credit, it appears to be Christopher Bullock in 1716 who first put death and taxes alone in the realm of certainty. Scripture absolutely agrees with him on death. More than that, Paul wrote to Timothy, you can be sure that death won’t let you walk out winning because you have the most toys, as the silly expression goes.
If death is for certain, then, we know why so many have asked through the ages if there truly is nothing to be done to beat its grip. And we know why so many have found the single answer to lie in the overcoming resurrection of Jesus. Will we have life again after this one? We will only if our hope and security are in Christ. With him, one certainty overrules the other.
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Jeff Hopper
June 8, 2021
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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