For reasons I cannot quite fathom, I played golf on my honeymoon. Those of you who know me personally will realise what a foolish thing this is to allow me to do. I have the ball skills of a gnat. Jon has since learnt.

Whilst on the first tee, I dug up rather ample sections of immaculate turf in my attempts to hit the ball. Jon, who shows great natural talent and promise at all ball-sports, was mortified and muttered terse comments under his breath. I infuriated him further by finding my antics hilarious. I became weak with laughter and even less likely to hit the teeny ball with my long pokey stick thing.
When I did finally hit the stupid thing, it went so far into a bushy area that we couldn’t find it. For half an hour.

It reminded me of the British Open Golf Commentator who, having watched a player retreating into thick undergrowth to find his ball said,
“That ball is so lost that even if it were wrapped in bacon, Lassie wouldn’t find it.”

There are some things that it is best not to try. For the sake of the nation, your health or your marriage. For me, golf comes under all of those categories. As does mechanics, and most forms of maths. However, there are certain things we are meant to try and try and try again at.

Think of something you are meant to be tenacious at right now. Is it a friendship you find difficult, or a work project? Perhaps it is a dream God has given you that appears to be going nowhere, or worse, backwards?

My sense is that you may not need to stop and do something else, but hold your club differently.
I have been spiritually ‘taking a swing’ at something for a while now. But nothing has happened. Yesterday, a lovely friend rang me and just gave me a totally different direction to head in. I realised that sometimes golf balls bend in the air with the wind and look like they are heading the wrong direction but end up on the green.

I am praying differently today about the same thing, but with a new direction to head in. I pray today that God ends the season of frustration for you too and allows you to hit that ball, clean, long and in the exact spot you need it to be.