I find this true of two
activities I enjoy, hunting and golf.
Those of us who lack a mastery of the game of golf, and probably always
will, continue to pay our money for the privilege of being frustrated for a few
hours, often embarrassing ourselves in the process. I have been playing golf for about fifteen
years. The trouble is I only play about
once or twice a year. There is no
wondering why my improvement in the game has been extremely slow. I have moved past my first stage of
concerning myself only with the count of the number of golf balls I lost. I now actually keep score of the number of
times I hit the ball. I will never be
good at this game. So why do I continue
to plunk down my credit card and spend four hours of my life to play the
game? Hope. Every time I get discouraged, I hit one
really great shot and immediately begin thinking I just might be getting the
hang of it. If I just stick with it, I tell
myself, I will one day be blessed with a decent score.
I have been hunting deer since
October 2006. I have made 48 attempts to
get a deer. Currently, the score stands
at Deer: 48 Me: 0. Why do I keep going out? Hope.
I get a turkey every spring. I
have had some wonderful opportunities to shoot deer and have blown them. Other people who hunt in the same places I
hunt shoot bucks. I have been told I am
doing all the right things. I am
conscious of my human scent. I scout out
areas before the season opens. I walk
quietly. I learn new techniques every
year. I have the right equipment. I just haven’t been in the right places at
the right times with the right skills.
But I keep going, and am thoroughly convinced I will bag a buck (and I
don’t care how many points he will have) one of these days. I was recently told, by a somewhat surprised
hunter who knows me well, that I have a great attitude about it. Apparently, lots of guys do a lot of
grumbling when they aren’t successful in this area. I just know that if I persist, I will one day
be rewarded. I have hope.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the
Roman Christians, “For in this
hope we were saved. Now hope that is
seen is not hope. For who hopes for what
he sees? But if we hope for what we do
not see, we wait for it with patience.”
This has always seemed like one of those “Duh!” passages to me. That is, until I noticed the last part about
waiting with patience. That’s the hard
part, isn’t it? Holding out hope, but
doing it with patience. I am reminded of
a little quip I heard many years ago about a prayer from an impatient person, “Lord,
please grant me patience, and grant it now!”
It
seems to me that God has made us creatures who tend to hope for better
things. It appears to be a part of who we
are as humans. Like most things,
however, we have managed to pervert the gift we have been given. By that I mean we often spend way too much
time and energy trying to make our hopes reality, while ignoring that divine
hope for eternal things. I don’t mean to
suggest we should eliminate hoping for better circumstances in this life. If I am right, and hope is a God-given gift
to help us to continue to get up every morning, go to work, labor at making
relationships right, and attempt to ascertain and to do the will of God, then I
must not give up hope. However, the hope we
must cultivate more and more is our hope for eternal things.
C.S. Lewis wrote, Most people, if they had
really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and
want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world
that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. And it is this hope of things to come that
must keep us going, keep us serving our Lord, keep us focused on what really
matters.
Hunting
and golf are small potatoes in this eternal life I am living. So, why be impatient? I’d rather save my impatience for desiring
heavenly blessings.
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