We can make our plans, but God will determine our steps. (Proverbs 16:9, NLT)
Do you plan your golf round before you tee it up? It probably depends on how serious you are about the round.
I compete in team play at my club where we play against other clubs. Before COVID, we would play a practice round at the club we were going to play against that week. We would not go there to play for score but to map out hole-by-hole where to hit the ball. We wanted to know where the trouble was, so we could stay away from it. More important than that was knowing where to hit the shot on the green. Most hosting clubs will put the pin placements on the most difficult part of the green, putting the opponents at a disadvantage for the match. So we needed to know which part of the green would leave the easiest putts to these tough hole locations.
This preparation was so important to our team captain that he would tell us if we did not play the practice round, we probably would not play in the match, unless we already knew the opponent’s course really well.
But if that expression “the best laid plans” is meant to explain how life doesn’t always go as we’ve designed it, those words might apply doubly in golf. It’s hard to hit the ball where you want it to go!
The good news is that preparation often works even when things don’t go just as we would expect.
Today’s little 11-word proverb reminded me that preparation is a perfectly good practice. After all, on our team we wanted to get ready for our best round possible at the opponent’s club—and at our own! In life, we also want to be careful and smart. We don’t want to fail because we didn’t take time to plan ahead.
But nothing is guaranteed. Why? Well, the proverb reminds us that we can’t get ahead of God. He is the one who will determine the steps (or, what I say, the outcome). The good news is that preparation often works even when things don’t go just as we would expect. As any pilot will tell you, most anyone can fly a plane when nothing goes wrong; all their training is for the unexpected.
I have friends who practice and spend hours on the driving range. But often those same friends go out to the course and struggle. They say to me, “I was hitting the ball so well on the range, how come I can’t hit the same shot on the golf course?” Learning to accept these unplanned outcomes, knowing they are in God’s design, helps us take it easy on ourselves, especially when we’re talking about something of lesser importance, like golf.
In Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane, he told the Father, “Not my will but yours be done.” Jesus was more prepared than any man who ever lived. But even he had to surrender the ultimate outcome to his Father. If we have faith in God, believing that the outcomes in life are his, then we will enjoy and embrace the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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Dereck Wong
May 10, 2021
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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