Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer…. (Proverbs 30: 24-25, ESV)
Rushing to the tee box is not the wisest of strategies. Failing to stretch before a round is foolish. Not taking the time to rehearse your putting stoke is short-sighted. In addition to physical preparation, sports psychologists have now taught us the importance of pre-round mental preparation. Preparation is crucial to improve performance on or off the golf course.
In a recent interview, Jack Nicklaus explained why he would arrive early in his preparation for the majors, “I would go there to get rid of my nervousness, worrying about the rough or about the narrowness of fairways, worrying about the speed of the greens, firmness of the greens and just being at the U.S. Open…I always want to play three or four, five practice rounds beforehand to make sure everything else was out of the way and all I had to do was concentrate on golf.”
If we know nothing else, we know that Jack arrived prepared for the big ones. You don’t win eighteen majors by winging it. Other tour players have their own unique preparation strategies. Tiger rarely, if ever, plays the week before a major. That strategy has worked out rather well, wouldn’t you say!
A few weeks back, Tiger arrived at Southern Hills in his efforts to prepare for the 2022 PGA Championship. The Director of Golf, Cary Cozby, caddied for Tiger in Joe Lacava’s absence. Asked about Tiger’s preparation, Cozby replied, “I think he can contend…. This trip was all business.”
Whatever the strategy necessary to contend or win the big ones, the key to success is preparation. Now, to be fair, preparation doesn’t guarantee success, but it certainly increases the odds.
I can almost hear someone saying, “Yes, but! What about Walter Hagen or John Daly?” Well, perhaps those two and a few others are the exceptions. Or perhaps they would have won a lot more with a good night’s sleep and some range balls.
To succeed in school, business, or marriage, preparation is essential. Disregarding the need to prepare for exams is a knuckleheaded move. Failing to prepare for that upcoming board meeting is irresponsible. Forgetting your wife’s birthday is steroidal stupidity.
Considering today’s text and just for fun, I did a little reading on ant behavior. What I discovered was fascinating. While there is far more than I can report, and more still I didn’t understand, let’s just say—Solomon was way ahead of his times on ant behavior.
One article opened with this, “Give a colony of garden ants a week and a pile of dirt, and they’ll transform it into an underground edifice about the height of a skyscraper in an ant-scaled city.”
As fascinating as ants are, none rise to the level of being image bearers of God. If the animal kingdom can teach us a great many things about our Maker and ourselves, let’s pay attention.
The famous theologian of the First Great Awakening was Jonathan Edwards. He was not only a theologian; he was a proto entomologist. He spent an enormous amount of time studying the behaviors of insects, especially the spider. As a result of those studies, he wrote volumes of erudite theology from which practical applications of Christian living emerged.
Even if we never rise to the level of Jonathan Edwards, let’s learn from the ant and prepare our spiritual lives accordingly.
Prayer – Lord, teach us to prepare for kingdom living. Teach us especially to live our lives in preparation for your arrival.