Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Here are the words behind this blog headline:

I don’t know what my future holds, but I do know who holds my future.

For me, words to live by.

They indicate two realities for me.

• The first is that, as a human being, I don’t know about the future.  None of us do.  We live day-by-day, not knowing what may happen on that day or any other.

• The second is that, as a Christian, I know I am in God’s hands every day.  He holds my future, whatever it turns out to be.

To this, I add my favorite verses of Scripture, if it is possible to have favorites with so many good ones in the 66 books of the Bible:

II Corinthians 12:8-10: 

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’  Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 

Think about that promise for just a few moments.  God can be strong at the very point of our weakness, just as He was for the Apostle Paul when he wrote those verses in his second letter to the Corinthians.

So, again, my premise:  I don’t know what my future holds, but I do know who holds my future.

The same can be true for all who choose to claim God’s promise.