A Hole in Won

No, it's not a typo in the subject, just a play on words. This past weekend something profound happened to me and I have been thinking about it all week...now it's time to regurgitate this processed spiritual cud.

This past weekend I challenged my friend Lance to a game of ultimate skill, mastery of hand-eye coordination, and psychological warfare....miniature golf. We decided that we wouldn't play per shot, but per hole, so in other words whoever won the hole got one point, so 18 points were up for grabs.

I took the early lead of 2 holes ahead and carried it through nearly to the end, but I found that lead slowly slipping out of my grasp until eventually we faced off on the last hole. Hole 18. He caught up with me and we tied on a few holes. One hole would define who was man, and who was still a miniature golf youngling. Lance took the first shot towards the end of the green at a large box that said, "Hole in one". If he would have made it, it would have dumped his ball for a guaranteed hole in one. He hit just the side of the box sending his ball out of the green. He was forced to take a drop, which sent his ball well past the hole. Surely I could make this shot! Any infantile idiot could make it, proving once and for all that I was the King of Frankie's Funpark Miniature Golf!! I hit the ball for which time seemed to slow for, as it glided further and further from the mouth of the guaranteed hole in one, towards the opposite edge of where Lance shanked his ball...Nooooo! I shanked mine too! I had to take a drop as well...sending my ball just inches from his.

The next round of volleys was something like a death-match between two Titans on Mount Olympus. Back and forth, back and forth we tapped our golf balls until we both had 4 hits. Lance was close…so close to the hole. He lined up and hit the ball with the grace and ease of a demolition construction worker wielding a sledge hammer. Then that horrid sound followed...jingle...jingle. He knocked it in. Now it was my turn with an easy shot from just about 12" from the hole. No slope, no curves, no breeze. Just me and my uncanny ability to completely block out all external stimuli, something Spiderman would even be jealous of. I pull back my swing with precise execution, and swing with the fluidity of a pendulum, tapping the ball in the sweetest sweet spot ever. It was so beautiful it was as if the one perfect atomic sweet spot on my club hit the sub-atomic sweet spot of the ball. This was a connection fabled in the greatest romance books. The ball moved effortlessly towards its destiny. The ball sought out the hole like a heat-seeking missile screaming towards its target. Then....the sound....jingle...jingle...pop. Pop? What is this pop? The pop was divine. The "pop" was the ball literally popping back out of the hole, after it had gone in! Lance, I hate to say it, overcame and defeated me by...one...lousy...shot.

Since then I have been thinking about that one single solitary moment of my weekend. The moment that God smacked me in the head and said, "You're laughing, and I'm glad you are, but I plan on teaching you something from this." I have been in deep introspection since that moment.

In life we strive for perfection in so much of what we do. I might strive for perfection at school (getting A's), perfection at work (gotta earn that raise), perfection at home (don't let anyone know you might have problems), perfection with your kids (don't let your kids sully your name), and on and on. In life, we are going to miss those "holes in one" far more often then we get it in. Sitting there, mocking me with defiance, that ball reminded me that failures are inevitable.

Being a Christ Follower doesn't prevent us from failure. Following Christ doesn't always mean we are going to win our battles, nor does it mean we will live a perfect life. In fact, being a Christ follower guarantees that we will struggle, we will suffer. Being human guarantees that we will fail.

All that being said, I can tell you that Christ does make a promise that even through all these times, the failures, the lost battles, the imperfections in our lives, He will be there to make things perfect, He has won the war, and He conquered our imperfections when He died on the cross.

Be thankful when you are reminded of your imperfections. It's then that you are reminded that you are His, and perfected in Him.

Now as for me, it's time to play a game of basketball with Lance :)