Golf and Life

On Wednesday, I had the good fortune of listening to Jim Dobson, author of many golf books and stories. His newest release is a memoir he referred to as “love poem to golf.” It’s called Range Bucket List.

I’m no golfer. I like golf. I used to play it more before I had children. Post-having children, spaces of time to yourself lasting more than, say, five minutes are few and far between. I can’t even imagine asking my wife Lia for four to six hours to myself – especially on a weekend.

But listening to Jim inspired me to think about golf. I don’t know if there is enough thinking to actually get off my duffer. I’d like it to be. Maybe some time before the next decade is over.

Jim said, “Golf is a Scottish game meant to inflict pain.” I don’t know whether that’s true or not, but a line like that inspires me.

It reminds me about life. Did God design this thing in order to inflict pain? Or was pain introduced after the fall? What is pain? Is there really no gain without pain?

Those might be bigger questions than we will be able to resolve in a blog post.

I love what Jim said next. He said, “So have fun and laugh a lot.”

Have fun and laugh a lot…

 What do you do with your pain?

Does it take you off course? Does it keep you off the tee box? Does it make you want to take your club across the knee?

Do you laugh?

Can you laugh?

Should you laugh?

Not always.

But not never neither.