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Play It Where It Lies
Before Tiger Woods, there was Bobby Jones. A generation ago, he was the best golfer ever to play the game. Some contend there will never be anyone to match his feats in golf.
At the prime of his life and his game, Jones was stricken with a crippling disease that eventually took his life. When he could no longer play the game he had mastered like no other, he was asked how he felt about it. His reply, "I have to play it where it lies."
You have to have some knowledge of the rules of golf to fully appreciate his answer. When you hit a golf ball, where it lands is the spot from which you must hit your next shot. For instance, if you are on the tee and you wind up and with a mighty swing only send it 10 yards down the fairway, that is the spot from which you must hit your second shot. To circumvent this rule, many golfers (aka “hackers”) use a "mulligan" whereby you get to take another shot without counting it. It's kind of a gentleman's agreement to cheat.
If your ball happens to land in the rough (that's the high grass, weeds and trees that line the fairway), you must hit it from the rough. You're not supposed to pick it up and place it neatly in the fairway; you have to "hit it where it lies."
Bobby Jones reminds us that life sometimes hands us some "rough" times. It would be nice if you could "hit it in the fairway" every time, but that doesn't happen, even in golf. The best golfers have learned how to hit it well under “rough” conditions and that separates the men from the boys. As we live, we learn that there will be fair weather days and foul. There will be good times and bad, heart joy and heart break. Just about the time you think you're at your peak and nothing can go wrong, the ground can fall out from under you.
How Jones handled his disappointing and disabling disease speaks volumes about his character. I do not know what kind of spiritual background he had, but he sure learned something about how to graciously handle adversity.
Did not Job, that marvelous character from the Bible, teach us the same lesson? Talk about your adversity, Job excels them all! Yet, he did not do, as his wife advised him to "curse God and die" (Job 2.9). Though he struggled with the questions that plague us all when adversity strikes (he didn’t understand why it was all happening), he ultimately rebounded to even greater faith and prosperity. He chose to praise God and live.
Back to the golf analogy. One of the greatest differences between the professional and amateur is what they can do when they find themselves in adverse conditions. The pro can take a poor shot that has landed in the most terrible lie imaginable and hit a shot that defies description that lands on the green. The amateur just whacks around, takes his 7 on a par 3, or may even pick up his ball and go home. He might get so aggravated as to cuss, wrap a club around a tree, or throw it into the water. He has not learned to deal with adversity.
Too many times we throw our hands up in despair when the best practice is to raise them in prayer. Paul and Silas teach us that from a Philippian jail. They had been beaten severely and thrown under the jail. Rather than filled with despair the air was filled with "praying and singing hymns unto God" (Acts 16.25). The other prisoners heard them and so must we. The next time you're in the middle of some of the worst "rough" imaginable, let the air be filled with prayers and hymns to God.
Just as the amateur golfer will rarely be able to work himself out of "impossible" lies, we will find ourselves in "impossible" situations in life. In such cases, God is the Professional and we're simply going to have to leave it in His very capable hands. When we are tempted to give up in despair, we must let Him "make the shot." Thing is, in His providence, He may decide to let us "tough it out" a little longer than we desire. That's when faith has to kick in.
God let Abraham take several days to journey to the mountain upon which he was to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22). God didn't let him off the hook until the very last moment. There's no use trying to figure out God's timing on anything, especially how long adversity will last or how many things will pile up at one time. Just about the time you think you've got about all you can possibly handle, another difficulty comes roaring in. Whoever says, “Troubles come in threes,” is wrong. Sometimes they come in sevens and tens.
