{"id":1319,"date":"2022-01-18T09:32:40","date_gmt":"2022-01-18T14:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1319"},"modified":"2022-01-18T09:32:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-18T14:32:40","slug":"surprised-by-grace-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/18\/surprised-by-grace-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprised by Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Harvey Penick literally wrote the book on golf.

Throughout his life, he never aspired to be an author.  He simply loved everything that goes with hitting the little white ball. 

Born in Texas in 1902, Penick began to caddie at the Austin Country Club at the age of eight.  By the time he turned 13 he had been elevated to assistant pro.  He became head pro in 1923 \u2013 a position he retained until 1971.  Along the way he coached the University of Texas golf team to 21 conference championships, and mentored (among many others) Tom Kite, Kathy Whitworth, Ben Crenshaw, and Betsy Rawls, each of whom would ultimately be elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame. 

He also happened to be a world-class golfer in his own right, competing in the 1920s against greats like Ben Hogan and Walter Hagen. 

Year in and year out, Harvey took notes. 

He wrote private observations about golf in a red notebook.  He loved the game\u2019s simplicity and beauty.  He excelled at what golfers call \u201cthe mental game\u201d \u2013 the ability to bring maximum focus to the singular goal of addressing one\u2019s ball before each swing. 

Kevin Robbins, one of Penick\u2019s biographers, is among myriad golfers who became impressed not just with his observations but his character: \u201cHe was an uncomplicated, unfettered soul who brought clear thinking, plain solutions, and remarkable sense of clarity to golf.\u201d  And he insisted that those who play the game comport themselves with \u201cintegrity and grace, win or lose.\u201d 

When Penick was 88 years old, his son happened to pick up his well-worn red notebook.  Apparently, no one else but Harvey even knew that it existed.  

\u201cDad, this is amazing.  Do you mind if I see if someone wants to publish it?\u201d  Penick gave his consent.  His son soon returned with exciting news.  \u201cSimon & Schuster is willing to publish your notes, and they\u2019re offering an advance of $100,000.  What do you think about that?\u201d

Penick was pensive.  \u201cWell, I don\u2019t know.  My finances are tight.  I\u2019m not sure I could come up with that kind of money.\u201d   

\u201cNo, Dad,\u201d said his son, \u201cSimon & Schuster wants to give you<\/em> $100,000 for the privilege of publishing your book!\u201d 

Well, when you put it that way\u2026

In 1992, Harvey Penick\u2019s Little Red Book: Lessons and Teachings from a Lifetime in Golf<\/em> (co-authored with Bud Shrake) hit the market, and quickly became the highest selling volume on golf in publishing history.  

What is grace?  It\u2019s the mind-numbing discovery that God is willing to give to us for free what we could never purchase for ourselves. 

We may have come to the conclusion that we\u2019ll never be good enough, pure enough, smart enough, courageous enough, or prayerful enough to deserve a joyful, heartfelt relationship with God.  And that\u2019s all true.  We can never be enough of anything<\/em> to put God in our debt. 

But what we cannot accomplish on our own, God is willing to lavish as a gracious gift.  The apostle Paul writes concerning Jesus:

\u201cHe didn\u2019t, and doesn\u2019t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for [his] sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn\u2019t been so weak, we wouldn\u2019t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him\u201d <\/em>(Romans 5:6-8, \u201cThe Message\u201d).

That\u2019s grace. 

It\u2019s the one thing in the universe that will always be amazing.

Even if this turns out to be one of those days where you shank your first tee shot into the rough.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harvey Penick literally wrote the book on golf. Throughout his life, he never aspired to be an author.  He simply loved everything that goes with hitting the little white ball.  Born in Texas in 1902, Penick began to caddie at the Austin Country Club at the age of eight.  By the time he turned 13 he had been elevated to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[101],"class_list":["post-1319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-grace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1321,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319\/revisions\/1321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}