Hank Smith: 00:05 Hello, everyone. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This year we are telling a single story that goes with each week’s lesson. John, we’re in 2 Nephi 3, 4 and 5 and I thought of a story I might tell you. You’ve probably heard me tell this story before. So if I forget anything, let me know.

John Bytheway: 00:22 Sounds good.

Hank Smith: 00:23 Most people who listen to our podcast know that both of our fathers have passed away. Your father passed away years ago and mine pretty recently, just a couple of years ago. Well, when my father passed away, a couple of days later, I remember being very frustrated. I kind of told the Lord, “Hey, I would like a little notice when someone’s going to die,” because we figured we had more time, but didn’t end up being that way. I was pretty frustrated with the Lord and I was letting Him know that I was frustrated with how things had played out. But then an image, a memory came to my mind of my dad and I playing golf. My dad was a golf professional and we played a lot of golf growing up. Well, we’re playing this one hole that we had played many, many times and there’s this green. Those of you who don’t golf, you might have to ask someone about what a green is. But it’s where you putt the ball. You’ve probably seen this before. In the middle of this green is this massive hill that goes down.

  01:22 So you can either be on the upper part of the green or the lower part of the green. But between those two is a big hill and anytime you land on the top, you putt it and it just races right off the front because the hill is so steep, it just blah right off the front and I go up to see where I am on the green and I’m going to try to make a birdie putt and my ball is up on that second level, the higher level and I’ve been there so many times and I knew what was going to happen. I was going to putt it slow as I possibly could. It was going to hit that hill and just fly off like a rocket and it was going to go straight over the cup, even if I hit it right at the cup. Golf balls defy the law of physics, John.

John Bytheway: 02:01 They do.

Hank Smith: 02:02 They go straight over the cup. So I lined up to do it and my dad, it was just he and I, he said, “Hold on a second. Hold on. What if we tried it putting it towards me?” Which was exactly the wrong way, John. It was the wrong way to putt.

John Bytheway: 02:21 He said to the golf pro.

Hank Smith: 02:22 Yeah, yeah. I said, “Dad, if I putt it that way, it’s away from the hole,” and he said, “I know, I know. But why don’t we give it a try?” And I said, “Dad, no. You just don’t want me to make this birdie putt.”

John Bytheway: 02:35 Because then you’ll have to buy the donut.

Hank Smith: 02:36 Yeah. He kind of looked at me like, “Seriously?” And we went back and forth for a long time. I think I was 15 and then he said this. I still remember this. He said, “Hey, who do you think knows more about this, me or you?” And I sat there and I was like, “Well, I’m pretty good and you’ve been playing the game for five or six decades,” and I said, “I think we’re about even and I finally said, “You. You know more about this than I do,” and he said, “That’s right. So why don’t we do it my way?” And I said, “All right.” So I turned and I putt this ball, John, the wrong way. So I putt it towards him and I watched it and it went right towards him along the top of this hill. Then it got right towards his foot and it turned. It turned to go back towards the cup, nice and slow. It’s going back towards this cup and I am, “Whoa.” Right? It’s getting closer. It’s getting closer. You could feel the tension.

  03:46 It went slower and slower and slower and then dropped right in to that cup and I went crazy. I threw my hands in the air and I ran around the green. I remember out of the corner of my eye, I saw my dad. He had his hands in the air. He’s going around the green. We met in the middle and I was like, “That was the most amazing thing,” and he said, “Right? Right?” And I said, “Well, why are you surprised?” And he said, “Well, I didn’t think you’d make it.” Father, son, we just went over that. We stayed on that green replaying it and how it went down and even later in his life, he would tell me about going golfing with somebody and I said, “Did they ever hit a shot like on the 15th of Southgate?” Right? And he’s like, “That’s the greatest putt I’ve ever seen in my life to this day.” John, it would’ve been the number one play on SportsCenter.

John Bytheway: 04:38 SportsCenter.

Hank Smith: 04:39 Had we had a video. Yup.

John Bytheway: 04:40 (Singing) Hank Smith.

Hank Smith: 04:42 So there I am sitting on the edge of my bed, kind of upset with the Lord, really upset actually, that my father had been taken and, John, I’m telling you. That memory came back to my mind and I heard my father say, both of them, I think, “Who do you think knows more about this, me or you?”

John Bytheway: 05:03 That’s so good.

Hank Smith: 05:06 And I thought, oh, not again. You, I guess. I guess it’s you and the voice came again. “Well, you’re just going to have to trust me then. You’re going to do this my way,” and I’ve never forgotten that. So when I come to 2 Nephi 4 and I read about Lehi’s death and Nephi’s response and how when he thinks about that death, how sad he gets, he turns around and says, “Nevertheless …” I bet you can finish it, John. “I know in whom I have trusted,” and then he picks up and he keeps going. It’s a story that I love to tell. Who do you think knows more about this, me or you?

John Bytheway: 05:47 It reminds me of one of my fallback verses in 2 Nephi 2, 2 Nephi 2:24. “All things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.”

Hank Smith: 05:55 I know in whom I have trusted.

John Bytheway: 05:57 Somebody knows and it’s not you.

Hank Smith: 06:00 It’s not you. That’s humility is knowing there’s a God and you’re not Him. Well, thank you for joining us on followHIM Favorites. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. We’re with Dr. Jan Martin this week and she gives some incredible insights and then after you listen to the podcast, come back here. Join us next week for another followHIM Favorites.