No. 573 - I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER

No. 573

Jim Davidson - NEWSPAPER COLUMN

I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER

The Bible says that "Pride goeth before the fall" and I am here to testify that this is certainly true. Several weeks ago I had an incident occur in my life that made me very humble, and if you will come along, I would like to tell you about it. My reason for wanting to share this incident is that it may keep you from a similar fate or even worse. I might add that all of life is a classroom, and we should learn and profit from our experiences, in both the small and large events and experiences that come along day by day.
To set the stage, I would like to tell you a humorous story that I heard several weeks ago. It seems there was a rural preacher who lived back in the hollows of Eastern Kentucky who loved to hunt. Some of his most prized possessions were three large black and tan hound dogs. He loved his dogs, and the days when he was not hunting you could find him, along with his dogs, at his church study, preparing his message for the following Sunday. After weeks of this routine, and because his dogs did not know what day it was, he began to let them come into the church and sleep under the first pew while he was preaching.
You can imagine the conversation by the church members the first Sunday they showed up, to see the preacher's three hound dogs all snoozing quietly under the pew. Some of the members didn't like this arrangement, but finally accepted it after the preacher assured them the dogs knew they were in a house of worship and always showed reverence and respect and never, I repeat, never forgot where they were. After a few weeks, the conversation died down and they became, more or less, one big happy family.
Then one hot July day, when the windows and the doors were all open, a big Tom cat walked down the center aisle of the church during the preaching service. You know what happened to those dogs? They forgot!
The moral of this story is that I also forgot something very important, following a round of golf with three members of my local Lions Club. I might say very candidly that none of us are very good golfers, but we enjoy the fellowship and just being out in God's beautiful world. We have a great time and I am the oldest member of the group, with a very inexpensive set of clubs.
It should be easy to understand, given this scenario, that I take a great deal of pride when I beat these fellow Lions, given my age and knowing their clubs are far more expensive than mine. Well, we had a round a while back and I was doing better than usual, when we came to the final hole, a long par four with an elevated green. When I teed off, I hit the ball a long way right down the middle. My next shot with a five wood was also outstanding and was just off the green. I then chipped the ball to within 12 inches of the hole and tapped in for a par, which was highly unusual for me.
Everything would have been fine if that had been the end of the story. However, at our next weekly meeting, I asked a member of our group, who is really good natured, to stand up and tell the club about what happened the week before on the 18th hole. True to form, he did and I sat back down filled with a great deal of pride. Here is where this story really gets interesting. You may know the saying, "God takes care of His own." And boy did He ever. The next week I had the worst round that I have had since I started playing golf.
There is no way to escape the reality that pride does indeed go before the fall. I re-learned a lesson that I have worked on for years. When I thought about this lesson is when I was reminded of the three hound dogs, when that big Tom cat walked down the center aisle of that country church. I also forgot. The sad thing is that I should have known better.
Have you ever said to yourself or even out loud to someone else, I should have known better? Let this story be a lesson for me and maybe for you, too.
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(EDITOR'S NOTE: Jim Davidson is a motivational speaker and syndicated columnist. You may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, Ark. 72034. To support literacy, buy his book, "Learning, Earning & Giving Back.")