There isn’t much to brag about in my golf game.  But one advantage of not being a long driver of the ball is the tendency to hit more fairways.  There are some who would argue that today’s game is more of a bomb-and-gouge pursuit where the players hit their drives as far as they can, no matter where they end up, and then do whatever it takes to extract their ball from the rough to get it onto the green.  Hank Haney is a famous proponent of the importance of distance.  To his credit, most of the highest paid professional golfers tend to hit the ball very far.

But for the average golfer, like me, hitting 300-yard drives isn’t in the realm of possibility.  And most golf courses I could afford to play do not have the uniform rough and off-fairways lies the pros enjoy.  Hence, the importance of the fairway.

The picture above shows my ball of the sixth tee of my local golf course.  I hit that drive today, into the wind, about 225 yards.  That’s not very far by today’s standards.  The post in front of the ball is the 250-yard marker into the green.  No chance that I’m going to be making it to the green in two shots.  But, since I have a good lie in the middle of the fairway, there is an excellent chance that my second and third shots will result in my making par or better on the hole.  And that’s the goal in my golf world.

You see, I could lose patience with my golf game and try to hit the ball much farther.  The results would likely be that I would enjoy fewer shots from the fairway and more from undesirable places.  That’s what happens when we deviate from God’s plans for our lives.  We end up off the path he has groomed for us and into undesirable places.  From those, we end up really making a mess of things.  

In the game of golf, it’s easy for one bad shot to result in at least two more strokes on a hole.  The same way in life, we have one bad day away from God’s plan and it can take two or more days for us to get back on the program.  Even though we might not get all the attention for hitting the ball the farthest, we enjoy a lot more success when we are patient and value staying in God’s will for our lives.

If you don’t play golf or aren’t familiar with the game, you may not understood all I have written today.  Be patient for one more day and I’ll post a different example tomorrow which may be more familiar to the majority of people.  If you do play golf, adopt the 80% rule and keep your swing under control.  You’ll enjoy hitting more fairways and playing from better lies.  Stay in God’s will for your life and you will always be working from a preferred lie.  Blessing to everyone for a wonderful weekend!