Memories are windows to redemption

the way, dad hit a shot that lasered toward the group in front. He yelled, “Fore!” A 4year- old does not understand these things. If mimicry is flattery, I attempted to flatter dad on his very next shot. Uninhibited, I yelled, “Fore!” This was the same day I learned golf was a whispering game. Four years later, I was hooked on golf.

This column is not about cute stories. It is more honest. Today, it attempts to tell you something about the journey, about being wrong, about redemption.

I loved golf, but I had no discipline. I worked hard but without purpose. My goal was an idea with no concrete steps. I was so enthralled with the game, I abandoned all other sports. Golf was my first thought in the morning and my last thought falling asleep on the pillow. It was a mistaken god.

I am troubled by this devotion to a game. I am troubled by the detour to God. I do not regret pursuing the game or my career. I regret my focus, my perspective, my silence. I regret relegating God while pursuing ephemeral experiences and repeating the fool’s history.

Memories are step- ping- stones into eternity. They are revelations along the journey to our present reality. They are windows to redemption.

Through God’s constant seeking, I learned. I did not seek redemption, but it found me. Redemption can never be equated with confinement. It is the road between our thoughts and our experiences. It has the quality of letting go ( our past), but more so, looking toward (God). Redemption preserves soulful rest, that unconscious, unspoken destination for which we yearn and cannot find alone.

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” ( Matthew 11: 29,30)

“Mathetes,” the Greek word for disciple, simply means learner. I have become one. My golf journey taught me. My detour became God’s amazing path toward a redeeming life.

What a journey it is from hearing to an unconscious act of love that seeks to be our first rather than our last thought. How can we ever be compelled to live the calling com- mon to all Christians when in our constant resistance to the message, we fail? What more would witness to our Lord’s grace but the redeeming life?

God has lowered himself to our choice. Each day, no matter how faithful we are, we face a decision between proclamation and repudiation. God nags us with preparation, with a memory, and by this, He redeems us.

Sometimes the message is in the journey.

“Those who have ears to hear, let them hear” ( Matthew 11: 15).