Golf, Gratitude and Humility

Golf, Gratitude, and Humility

Yesterday I played my first round of golf in fifteen years. I played once about a year and a half ago but I don't count that 18 holes. It resulted in a hernia repair surgery and, as such, I'd just as soon forget it. The whole story may also have something to do with me busting up an outdoor concrete staircase and sidewalk with a 15 pound sledgehammer the day before... But I digress... Yard work is yard work and the whole experience was unpleasant and costly. As Gilda Radner of Saturday Night Live fame remarked, "nevermind, then..."

So, I repeat: yesterday, I played my first round of golf in fifteen years. My early morning team was completed by my son, Keeton, my law associate, Drew, and his father, Jim. It was good company. And we played the area's easiest course: the Bicknell country club. It's not really a country club. In actuality, it has more in common with a cow pasture than a premier course. Flat, wide open and forgiving: it was the perfect place to begin again. A new birth of sorts.

Like riding a bike or remembering how to swim when thrown into deep waters, I didn't play as bad as expected. Somewhere between bogey golf and whatnot, I found my sea legs again. I need some time at the driving range and I need a whole lot of weekly golf... But I remembered the fun of companionship and the feel of familiar clubs. I remembered the joy of the scenery. And I remembered the peace of simply being in the moment. A cold, wet morning with slow greens that gives way to a later warmth and a slight breeze; a slow start and a good finish; time with friends and, as Mark Twain opined, "a good walk spoiled."

But most of all, I remembered a friend.

I miss him.

You see, the Bicknell county club is where we decided we would learn to play golf together. Years ago. I would drive to his house and we would take his red truck through the country. Winding round the bends, past the old dilapidated mine, and over 15 miles of corn, beans and dirt, we would journey to this beginner's course together. No one would know us. We learned to play in anonymity and without embarrassment. We learned together; he was my friend.

I've thought about him a number of times throughout the years and I've talked to him once and again... But our paths separated and we travelled different roads. I know now, in my mid-forties, what I did not know in my early thirties. Had I known then what I know now, I would have used a different iron and I might have laid up instead of clubbing through. While I don't regret certain decisions I earlier made, I do mourn the loss of a relationship or two. And his is one of them.

He made a significant contribution to my life. Today, I am trying to pay it forward to another friend of mine and, as such, I hope his legacy lives on. He was my law partner, my friend, and a good man. I want to be for my legal associate everything and more that my friend was to me. My former golf partner took a flyer on me when few else would. He invested his time and learning in me when friends were hard to find. And he was long suffering when I routinely tried his patience. I want to be that man for others. I learned more than a few lessons from him. In a word, I am grateful for his contribution, friendship, experience and legacy. I still look up to him.

It occurs to me that I am now the age he was when we first began our adventure together. That seems significant. In fact, it is downright humbling. I am reminded of both my friend and what the Lord my God has spoken:

"[I]n humility count others more significant than yourselves." Phil. 2:3(b)

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways." I Cor. 13:11

And

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8

Lessons in humility are valuable; they are life changing. And they hurt. What is most valuable comes with a cost. Treasures are not free.

If our paths ever cross, I will buy a round of golf and once again enjoy his witty company. We are now states apart, but even chance meetings are not so chance. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Like I earlier said, I have remembered the joy and peace of the slow start that finishes well. Perhaps there is humility to be found there as well...

My hope and prayer is that he, you and I finish well.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad