I love playing golf because it’s always outdoors in a beautiful environment, and most often played with good friends or family. The other benefit is that you can often discover a lot of life lessons from playing the game. In fact, today’s Monday Message was inspired by golf, not so much by playing it, as by not being able to play it. Let me explain…
The past couple of weeks I have been struggling with back pain. So, I’ve had to limit the amount of golf I play. Granted, most people my age have problems with back pain, but luckily mine seems intermittent. (Although some would say that I am a pain in the ass all the time!) Fortunately, most of the time, even when I struggle to get out of bed in the morning, I can still swing a golf club. But not this past Saturday.
My wife and I were scheduled to play golf with my daughter, Nikki, and her husband, Andrew. I was really looking forward to it because I love golf and I love my son-in-law. He is an amazing young man, a hard worker who treats my daughter with a ton of respect, while always treating her like he is madly in love with her. We are blessed to have him in our lives, and since it was his birthday coming up, I really wanted to show him (and her) a good time.
When we arrived at the golf course, I did not do my usual warm up routine. Mainly because after only two practice swings, my back started barking very loudly at me. But then Andrew and Nikki pulled up, laughing and smiling, just two young people in love out to have a good time together. I thought about bailing out, but after seeing their big smiles I decided to suck it up instead and play for as long as possible because Saturday wasn’t about me, it was about showing love to others.
On the first tee, I somehow hit one of the best drives I’ve ever hit on that hole and made PAR. More importantly, my back only hurt a little. On the second tee, I drove the ball straighter and farther than I ever have on that hole, and made PAR again. Nikki and Andrew were having fun too. Nikki doesn’t golf much, but on Saturday she was hitting drives off the tee like a pro. We were all laughing and having a great time. By the time 9 holes were over my back was killing me, but I had just played some of the best golf of my life. More importantly, I got to spend time with people I care about and show them my love.
Even though my back was hurting, and I wasn’t able to finish the round, I had a great time and hopefully my family enjoyed it even more. Despite the pain, on the drive home I was really happy! But I kept thinking, “How on earth was I able to hit so many great drives with such a screwed up back?” And then I remembered the lesson from last week’s Monday Message. “To find happiness, we must seek for it in a focus outside ourselves.”
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