Hello,
“Have you been watching any of the PGA tournament?”, I asked a fellow pickle ball player as we were waiting our turn to return to the court.
“Nope,” he said. “Don’t watch any golf. Play a little. But don’t watch it? How about you?”
“Well, as far as golf goes, I watch better than I play.” We chuckled together.
I know that many people find watching golf as exciting as watching grass grow, but I find a quiet intrigue in watching golfers hit shots that I only dream of hitting, handing the pressure of making a putt that means hundreds of thousands of dollars, and on occasion duffing a shot as badly as I do with much more regularity.
One of the things that amazes me when I watch golf is what happens when one of the golfers hits a ball into the crowd. Often times the people stand there as if wack-a-moles, unaware of the projectile that has been launched their way. It is amazing to me that direct hits on the fly seem to be rare exceptions. Hit or miss, when the ball comes to a rest, the crowd flocks around it forcing the security people to create a tunnel so the golfer can reach the ball. And here’s the thing that I find most intriguing, the people actually want to be in the first row of that tunnel as the golfer prepares to hit the ball.
I know that I would not be in the front line. You wouldn’t have to ask me to move to the back of the crowd. I would already be there. The thought of standing just yards away from a hard little ball that is going to be struck with muscle-car torque is not on my list of things that seems at all wise to do. But people do it. All the time. It doesn’t seem to matter to them if the ball is sitting in a precarious hitting position or not. People scramble to be in the front line, and they don’t seem to be very willing to move the line back to make the tunnel wider.
“Ah, but the pro’s never mis-hit.” It is true that I have never seen a person standing in the front line of a human tunnel get hit by a pro’s mis-hit ball (although I did see such a thing happen when Charles Barkley teed off, one time). Even so, I see that person wielding a club possessing a characteristic that draws my fear. That person is human….just like me….and humans are never perfect. Sure, by the amount of practice and skill that a pro possesses, I would far more trust the likelihood of a pro’s accurate hit, than someone like me. Relative trust….not ultimate trust….do I give humans. Golfers or otherwise.
That is where the mystery of the incarnation comes into play for me. One of the main tenets of the Christian faith is that Jesus, although fully human, was also fully divine. Over the centuries people have tried to make reason of this dual nature of Jesus, but when people have done that their conclusions fall short of the Biblical witness….a witness that tells me that because Jesus was fully human, I know that he understands and cares for the frustrations and pain of human life…..and a witness that tells me that because he was divine, I can trust him fully to do something about it.
Humans can do amazing things….doctors, plumbers, government leaders, teachers, parents, friends….and I find myself putting a lot of trust in what humans can do. But even in the best of situations, my trust is not ultimate, but relative. My ultimate trust, I place in the one who wonderfully and mysteriously knows what the holes are like that I hit myself into and with the power of God himself, never mis-hits.
Fore!
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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