February 3, 2009

• Purloined from revsteve again - Who Controls Golf Balls?

    9/13/93 - Speculations on a fractured jaw.

  There I was, on September 7, golfing with my bus driving and pastor-buddy, Mike Merrit. We were enjoying some fellowship and kicking back, dropping golf balls in the water. My tee shot off the 15th tee took a horrible slice and landed nicely on the 14th fairway (parallel hole). So I crossed the creek and was standing behind some trees while a threesome with carts played through to the 14th green.

  Player one hits, sneak up behind a tree for safety. Player two hits, sneak up behind a crotched tree, well off line of the intended direction, about 30 yards away. He hits the ball out of the rough he was in as well as I hit my tee shot. The ball curves through the crotch in the tree and arrives at my jaw, just below my left ear. I drop to my knees, yelling a-la-combat "I'm hit! I'm hit!" I figured that it was serious when I was able to spit out blood and little bits of bone or tooth.

  I was carted to the club house, Mike drove me to St. Maragaret's Hospital, then to the Oral Surgeon's, whose X-ray revealed a compound fracture of my jaw. Then Mike drove me to Perry Hospital, where holes were poked in my veins, and wires were wrapped all around my teeth to fasten my upper and lower jaws together. (At least the vein holes aren't still plugged with wires.)

  So here I sit, 36 days away from a massive pizza binge, speculating on the sovereignty of God.

  Does God control the flight of golf balls (Possibility #1:) so that they strike pastoral jaws? (The flight of the ball was rather odd. I mean, figure out all of the possible vectors and trajectories that the infernal dimpled orb could have taken. Why this particular jaw-borne flight through crotched vegetation?) If God does control such things, then for what purpose? To use a trial to build faith? Is it to rebuke me for taking time to golf on a non-official day off, or for some sin that I will not repent of? Does the Lord need to take me out of the pulpit for a short while? (Either because I am not preaching the Truth as I should, or he needs the message delivered by another for a better hearing.) Is there someone that I can lead to Christ through all this. Perhaps Bob "the slicer" needs the Lord, or some of his co-golfers. It could be that the almighty intended this for a mighty work in my life, in my family's life, or in the life of my Church. (You know, to teach us "something.") Perhaps there is some purpose that I will never know until All is revealed.

  Possibility #2: Does Satan control the flight of golf balls so that they strike pastoral jaws? Here the purposes are far easier to figure out. Discouragement, to shut me up for a while, plain old pain, division within the Church, trying to get me to cuss and swear, to be vengeful at poor Bob "the slicer," etc. Perhaps even the infernal one has unknowable objectives.

  Possibility #3: Rotten luck. Perhaps neither God nor the One who hates controlled the flight of the ball in the least. Maybe my "guardian angel" was having a "Big Mac attack" and was unavailable to move me out of the way. (Actually, I believe that this possibility of blind chance could easily route right back to the first possibility, seeing that God could have altered the flight of the ball so that it would have "hooked" rather than "sliced.") Perhaps there are things that God does not get involved with, so that his grace in my life might be clearly seen by my response to events with no intended purpose or meaning: events unplanned.

  Here are two completely different, yet similar sounding statements:

  God is in control of all things.

  God is in control in all things.

  Is God a total dictator of events, or is he more powerful than events. Is his sovereignty so vast that he does not need to control everything, that nothing can upset his "apple-cart."

  If God is always, directly, in control of such sphere's flights, and all other events as well, why don't I get more pars, and even an occasional birdie? If the Almighty determines every event, then truly there is no true Choice, and the determinists are right, and so are the existentialists in regard to how we ought to react to events. No one can truly chose salvation, and God choses who is damned and who is redeemed.

  In such a controlled world, why bother to witness. Why avoid sin, since then God would determine if I sin or not. All of life seems to become a cruel joke, and we are simply unintentional actors in the Script of the Universe.

  If Satan controls events, then why doesn't God stop him. Perhaps the Dualists (The forces of good and evil are equal, though opposite. God's power is no greater than Satan's.) are right after all! Maybe the demons "mugged" my "Guardian Angel" just before the "slicer" sliced, and he therefore couldn't help.

  Here's my resolution: Perhaps neither God nor Satan are all that concerned about my jaw (although I hope that Satan wants me dead!). Perhaps what both are really concerned about is what I do in reaction to this adversity. The Divine One desires that whatever I do, whether in word or deed, that I do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17) The Evil One desires that whatever I do, whether in word or deed, that I debase the name of Jesus, blaming God for everything rotten that happens to me.

  Paul writes in Philippians 4: 12-13 (NIV) "I know what it is to be in need" (have a broken jaw), and I know what it is to have plenty (an ability to eat pizza until you burst!). I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

  I believe that the question of who controls the flights of golf ball is not really the issue here. The same applies to cancer, miscarriages, and car accidents. The real issue is this: How do I honor Christ in this adversity. In moments of self pity (smelling chocolate chip cookies), I want to know why this should have happened to a great guy like me. My question is not relevant. After all, the golf ball was a whole lot more gentle than the Lake of Fire which I fully deserve.

  The only allowable relevance in my life must be this: I want to know Christ and the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3: 10-11, NIV)

  So let golf balls break my jaw, let my knees go bad, let my son be miscarried, come hell or high water, come trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, come life or death, angels or demons, the present or the future, powers, height or depth, come anything else in all creation (Romans 8: 35 - 37). Nothing shall separate me from The Crucified One's love, whom I have sworn to honor all the days of my life, and nothing must hinder my devotion to him who died in my place.

  My circumstance is irrelevant, I must honor Christ.

  • 23:30
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