In everything give thanks… (1 Thessalonians 5:18, KJV)
Not for everything.
In everything.
It’s not the triple bogey on the last hole but our response to it that matters.
It’s not for news that your sister just found out she has cancer, but it’s in that state of shock that we’re commanded to give thanks.
A number of years ago I was playing a round of golf at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver. Taking a deep breath of air in the Mile High City was a little taste of heaven. As we looked down from the tee onto the fairway of the tenth hole, I could see tall evergreens on five or six holes.
Gene Neher and Jerry Overgaard, members there, had organized an outing for about a dozen men. I was paired with a man I’d just met that day. He’d hit a beautiful tee shot, but the ball had taken a terrible bounce and bounded into the heavy rough. As we walked down the fairway, I attempted to console him.
“You hit that drive almost perfect. No way should you be in the rough.”
He glanced over at me and chuckled.
“Really, a shot like that lands on the fairway shouldn’t be penalized. I wonder if it hit a sprinkler head?”
He smiled.
“You don’t seem upset.”
“Jim, I’m just thankful to be here.”
After he found his ball and hacked it back onto the fairway, he told me he’d almost died of cancer the previous year.
There’s a saying that I learned from some of the Native Americans that I went to school with in Twin Falls, Idaho: “I cried because I had no moccasins until I met a man that had no feet.”
What do I see?
I have a choice.
To groan and see only the worst. Or give thanks in everything.
—
Jim Hiskey
February 21, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.