A dozen years ago two bright, gifted college students from Idaho flew down to spend a weekend with me at my home in Silicon Valley CA. One of them was a Pro Golfer it turns out. I pretended to like golf, but I really didn't. My dad loved golf as well as did my mentor Ray Stedman. Billy Graham played golf with many Presidents apparently, thereby having a wide open door for him to talk about Jesus Christ on the neutral ground of the golf course.
I enjoy seeing a golf course--once. The lakes, rolling hills, the club house often cost zillions of dollars to create. My friend played with some of the best! This week Jacob wrote me about a matter of importance to golfers--a good driver.
Men Need “Drivers!”
Men come alive with a new driver! Literally, their eyes light up....they get juiced....they enjoy their life hitting golf balls.....and they dream and fix and ticker and play like children at times. It’s a masculine thing at times too! Men respond with a new driver in hand, and I get to be right there when they enjoy it sometimes at work. Yesterday, a 4 year old lad asked his dad for the first time in his life, “dad, are you a good golfer”? Hilarious! Childlike! That boy was sizing up his dad. At age 4! I quickly responded, “yes”! The next guy, an older seasoned gentleman, hit 50 swings on a new driver. He was ready to buy it, but his wife came around the corner and wooshed him away. The man was deflated! He was loving every swing hitting the new driver! But clearly the wife had the bank account in check and they moved on, but the point was the man came alive for 15-20 minutes! And a second point is that man has a higher calling to his wife than hitting driving range balls. But men need these things! These moments!
There is something about men being able to come alive. Much like what John Eldridge talks about in his book Wild at Heart!
As an old-school Electrical Engineering student, the word "driver" refers to the final stage in a radio transmitter. My first assignment when I dropped out of grad school was to modify a 50 kilowatt Westinghouse FM transmitter into a radar which could get echoes from the moon. The Final Amplifier--and the Driver were air cooled by a huge fan. The very first purchase I wrote was for red floor tile. My boss, Ray Leadabrand procured a big 40 foot van and Neil Stafford designed and built our first giant steel framework disc. (See My True Career Story if you want to know more)
But I digress...
Good captains are essential to keep an ocean liner from striking an iceberg and sinking. When riding on an airplane, our very lives are in the hands of the Pilot. We fuss a lot about a quality president in the White House, though it's our fault if we elect the wrong dude. Good dads are rare, but we know one when we meet one.
The kind of drivers I resonate with best are the stage coach drivers of the wild west! The cowboy next to him was "riding shotgun." The passengers were in for a rough ride if outlaws pursued, or hostile Indians were lying in weight. Everything depended on the skill and daring of the driver!
The settlers of the Wild West, like my grandparents, came here in covered wagons with everything they owned on board. There were many hazards on the way. Quite a few didn't make it and were buried along the trail. Those who did arrive often had to build a log cabin and eke out a living by the seat or their pants. Schools came later, and the railroads, and finally law and order. The world as it is now how morphed into some new thing that apparently is disconnected from any real past history, yet we are supposed to be destined for greatness we are told--though all the evidence points to impending disaster.
I also know about "negative feedback" and low distortion.
Other Drivers: Taxi, Bus, Ambulance, Truck, UPS, Uber, Amazon
Jesus is not a slave-DRIVER, but He is in charge of the entire universe. The key to our being used by God is for us to be available for His DRIVER'S training program.
Jesus is also our Trailblazer, cutting a trail through the wilderness. He is the Forerunner, the First-Born out from among the Dead. He is the heir of all things. If Jesus is not in the Driver's Seat of your life, He ought to be. He is the great "I AM" and we are lesser "i ams."
End Note: Backseat Drivers are Disqualified
The Strongholds of Inner Space
The Management of the Universe
The Left Hand of God
New Body Life
Earth’s Near Term Future
"What determines the future is what God has done in the past
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Lambert Dolphin
