All the Tools

So I am eating my Nature Valley crunchy granola bar and I notice a few logos on the wrapper. This is the official energy bar of the PGA Tour and also of the US Ski Team.

I can’t believe that I have the same exact resources as Olympic Skiers and Golfing greats such as Tiger Woods. I couldn’t help but wonder why I don’t hit a golf ball as far as Tiger or why I can’t ski nearly as well as Johnny Mosley.

Then it occurred to me that I must steward the resources that I have and put them to work. Similarly, it is not enough to have really good golf clubs, you need to use them the right way. I could use the clubs of any person on the PGA tour and I would not suddenly become that person.

In the same way we have all the tools in the kingdom but if we don’t steward them, then they won’t produce the same fruit as the “professionals”. We must steward the resources and put them to practice until they produce the desired fruit.

Why am I not good at golf or at skiing? I don’t do it very often. Last summer I played more holes than I have in my entire life, and that was still under three full rounds (rained out one time). I didn’t expect to be good after my few golfing days, yet sometimes we expect to be working in consistent signs and wonders with little experience.

My encouragement is this: we have all the tools we need to succeed, but we must put those tools to work and steward the gift. We must experiment with what works and what doesn’t and become “students of the game”.

Keep going after it and remember that Tiger Woods wasn’t the outstanding player he is now the first time he stepped on a golf course.