Before treking into grounds that have incited holy jihads, I would like to say that I'm not a religious scholar or professor of intellect when it comes to preaching or describing the politics of religion. I'm just me.
I fear God enough to the fact that I know he loves me for better or worse, despite all of my shortcomings--there are so many; that I'm a product of his creation and he has blessed me to no end despite having some very severe flaws. I have gone beserko trying to fathom my existence to the point of exhaustion, I have gasped every living breath from my existence in hopes of finding solace for my being--and with each and everytime, God was there to guide me through this train wreck of fallow.
He was with me while I walked in from the Eden Course on a blustery late June evening with the light of the Royal and Ancient shining in the distance like a mythical shrine for all saints--a golden color not from the high pressure sodium lights that lit it, but from the countless stories just like mine that have experienced it. Yes, God was there with me.
On what was going to be the worse day of my life, and ended up being the best, he let me experience my grandfather again, some ten years after he died. It was strangely in the form of a deer on a magical stretch of sand at a beach called Spanish Bay.
He stood by me, all alone, tired and dehydrated on a hot and humid Monday in that timeless Merion sepia-toned locker room with the sunlight busting through the clouds and ancient panes of glass. Those rays shined on to the upper railings, which then casted their shadow to the bottom floor creating an errie, heavenly appeal.
Had I died and gone to heaven? Well sort of, I was in Philly.
God has enabled me to understand that I'm at my personal best; my most coherent, when I'm on a golf course in the evening hours enjoying this Game, because, and frankly, there is no better time for me to understand just how special of a gift life really is.
Many of us make it a point to go see what some of the most talented designers in the Game are creating with their God-given talents. They seek to create what inspires them the most; and they do it most of the time on blind faith, with their reputations at stake.
Yes, there is a God, and I love him. I love him with all of my heart. But most of all I know this because I have Faith, and it comes at the most definitive of times.