Golf As Life

I played golf again yesterday. I played the other of the two courses at Calloway Gardens. I had a great day on Tuesday and although I'm not a great golfer by any means I thought, "Boy my game is coming together. I was able with tight fairways to keep the ball in the fairway and make consistent shots. The course is long so I had to hit a number of long fairway woods and I was flawless. The greens were tricky and tough and not having played this course before I made a number of miscues, but I really was positive about my game. Yesterday was another story. The course was supposed to be easier and to a certain extent it was, but the golf game I thought was coming together came apart. I was a different player. After my tee shot I was all over the place and although the end score was the same as Tuesday, I don't know how. It seemed like a terrible day and that all I thought I had learned seemed unlearned.

Isn't that like life. I think I'm the same guy from day to day. My body looks the same. In the mirror I seem to be Dana, but I can change as swiftly as New England weather. It might be uncontrolled events like a sudden breeze on the golf course, but usually it is my attitude or my reaction. Marsha spent a year working on a New Years resolution to maintain an attitude of gratitude and remarked how elusive it was. I often think that I finally get it and God can depend on me, only to find I slip back into old patterns and behaviors. I hope that I have progressed some through the years and I actually know that I have. Like golf however I get trapped into thinking I have it all figured out only to have my hopes dashed in the next event. One area of growth however is that I don't get as frustrated and down on myself as I used to either in golf or life. I just pick up the pieces and try to figure out what is next. With my golf game it doesn't matter if I ever figure it out, but in God's plan for my life I pray for guidance, strength, inspiration, courage and all the other needed ingredients in finding the recipe for life in His grace.