Our personal caddy
I got to watch Chris do a fun thing yesterday! He randomly got the chance to fill in as a caddy for a friend-of-a-friend who's a professional golfer on the Senior PGA tour, and it was like watching a kid on Christmas. He had the best time.
And he was great at it! He did his homework to understand how the wind speed would affect the yardage numbers, he raked the bunkers like a boss, and he kept the player's spirits up by being his hilarious self. He carried the bag, cleaned the clubs, quieted inattentive spectators, and helped the player remember his strengths.
Watching this got me thinking about 2 things: 1) How lucky I am to get to have this remarkable guy by my side all the time, and 2) We each have our own personal caddy, who knows us better than we know ourselves, offers to carry our burdens, rakes our bunkers, points out our strengths, prepares the way for us, and helps us make the most of what we can do -- messes and all.
One of my favorite scriptures is:
Behold, I will go before you and be your rearward; and I will be in your midst, and you shall not be confounded.
Behold, I am Jesus Christ, and I come quickly.
I won't pretend to know how, since it's impossible to comprehend with my human mind anyway, but I've experienced this enough times in my life to say I've felt it in my spirit to be true. Times when it seems like things just fell into place so perfectly that there's no way it was coincidence... times when I've felt completely overwhelmed and alone, and then suddenly the burden is lighter when I think of Him and pray in His name...times when the words to say came into my mind at just the right moment.
Life is hard sometimes -- just like golf. Because God loves each of us, He has given each of us access to this world-class (actually heaven-class) caddy to help us navigate and even find parts to enjoy, if we'll trust Him and let Him walk with us.
Then (bonus!), when we're strengthened and supported, we have the opportunity and responsibility to strengthen and support others, just like He does for us. When we do this, we all play stronger and grow toward our potential.
