When I pass a golf course and I see a guy getting ready to hit the ball, I’m the kind of guy who loves to sound his horn. People don’t usually think that is funny but I think it’s playful and it keeps me young and golfers take themselves too seriously anyway. The road home passes two golf courses. One of them passes between the front and back nines. On a nice clear day there is almost always someone on the tee waggling the driver and feeling like Tiger Woods. If I can I time my beep for that special moment just as they draw the club away.
The other day just such an opportunity afforded itself. I waiting until just the right moment and prepared to sound my horn. By the grace of God (which by now you can tell is completely unmerited) something caught my attention and I looked up just in time to see the traffic ahead of me had come to a sudden stop.
I imagined what the scene of the crash would have looked like. My pacing around waiting for the police to arrive to take me to jail and take my license, talking on the cell phone to my wife who is giving me a speech about how I really should have grown up by now, golfers taking a break from their round to come over and take turns hitting me with their putters.
I’m so glad that didn’t happen. They say grace is when you get what you don’t deserve. Mercy is when you don’t get what you do deserve. I’m glad His mercies are new every morning. I need them every day. How ‘bout you?
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
May 18, 2009