Getting Caught in the Rough.
In early 1997, I was running the sound for my Church and our choir. We would often go on appointments to Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and all over metro Atlanta. I, as the “sound man,” was obligated to go and mix their sound.
We had a drummer, bass player, organist, and pianist. The drummer, Mark Drake, and I shared a room on most of those appointments.
He is a golfer and was watching a new young player named Tiger Woods playing in a tournament. Mark told me I needed to watch this guy play because he was amazing. So, I sat down and watched, and finally they got back around to him teeing off.
Whhhhisssh. He sliced the ball, and the ball went alright, straight into the rough. I burst out laughing and said, “Yep, he’s the one to watch alright.”
Then Mark said, “Wait.”
So, I waited and when he got down to the ball in the thick high grass I said, “Well, let’s see how he handles this.”
He lined up the ball with the flag, took a swing, and wow. The ball flew up and out of the rough, right onto the green and just inches from the hole. Tiger then walked up to the green and just tapped it in. Mark said something that day that has stayed with me all these years. He said,
“We all end up in the rough sometimes, but it’s how we handle it, that makes us what we are.”
Sometimes we are doing the best we can do, we are doing everything right, and it looks as if God is answering every prayer we pray for others and not hearing the ones for ourselves. Then we shank the ball and in the rough, we sit.
Paul told the Church in Corinth:
2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, NKJV
Paul called it “light afflictions” check out Paul’s “light afflictions” in
2 Corinthians 11:22-29 “He said, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews 5 times he received 39 stripes, 3 times he was beaten with rods; 1 time he was stoned; 3 times he was shipwrecked; often he said in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness… and this is “light affliction” And then he added his responsibility that comes upon him daily: “my deep concern for all the churches”. He sounds like he was in the rough. However, he kept his eyes on what was important, so how did he handle it. Look at the next verse.
2 Corinthians 4:18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. NKJV
It is not about what we get here but what we send there.
The things that are temporary are the things that we face here and now and Paul said do not let those things keep you pulled down but to look at the eternal things as he said in:
Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
Or in other words, don’t let yesterday rob you of what you can do today, and as far as tomorrow goes keep your eyes on the goal (or flag on the green) and keep pressing toward that goal. The eternal things.
Sometimes we end up in the rough to be taught.
Peter put it this way:
1 Peter 4:12-14
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. NKJV
We all end up in the rough sometimes, but it’s how we handle it, that makes us what we are. Don’t just stay there, knock that ball out, and if you don’t make it to the green, hit again, and again, and again, and again, whatever it takes. You just don’t give up.
Psalms 30:5b: …weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Joy is a coming, and it just may be sooner than you think. Please don’t give up on God, because I promise He hasn’t given up on you!
So how are YOU going to handle the rough?
“We all end up in the rough sometimes, but it’s how we handle it, that makes us what we are.”
