Read Your Notes!

One of the services offered to student athletes on scholarship at a university is academic tutoring. When I attended Florida State University on a basketball scholarship, my teammates and I took advantage of the tutoring program. Usually, the academic advisor and the athlete would meet to ascertain if there was a match before tutoring began. If the athlete didn’t like the tutor, they could request to meet with another one.

One of the determining factors of whether or not we liked the tutors was based upon their ability to give us privileged information concerning the tests. Many of the tutors were teaching assistants, so we knew they had insight into what was going to be on our exams. If we felt they didn’t have enough information, we would request another tutor. Never once did a tutor give us answers to the test.

My favorite tutor, who became a good friend, was a guy who had excellent notes from the class he was helping us to prepare for. Every session, my teammates and I would hound him for the answers to the test. We were being lazy and did not want to read the notes he had given us. The first fifteen minutes of our tutoring sessions would consist of us belittling him for not telling us the answers to the upcoming exam. We would offer him front row seats to our games, threaten to replace him with another tutor, and try to bribe him with Golden Girl (FSU dancing girls) introductions.

All of our conniving was in vain. He would not budge or give in. After ever attempt to get him to relinquish the cherished information, he would say to us in a loud voice: “Read Your Notes”! Every time we read the notes he gave us, we did well on our exams.

Dustin Johnson, a professional golfer, missed the playoffs of the 2010 PGA golf tournament because he failed to “read his notes”. Johnson grounded his club in what was deemed to be a bunker before his second shot, leading to a 2-stroke penalty. That knocked him out of a potential playoff won by Martin Kaymer over Bubba Watson.

The area had been trampled down by spectators and was well outside where traditional fairway bunkers would reside. But Whistling Straits is anything but a traditional course. Bunkers dot the property, hence the rule that was posted in the locker room and handed to every player prior to the tournament.

"I just thought I was on a piece of dirt that the crowd had trampled down," a despondent Johnson said in the locker room afterward. "I never thought I was in a sand trap. It never once crossed my mind that I was in a bunker.

"Obviously I know the rules of golf and I can't ground my club in a bunker, but that was just one situation I guess. Maybe I should have looked to the rule sheet a little harder.”


God has given us a book of notes, and He expects us to read it, and be prepared to face our day of judgment with good standing. This book of notes is called the Holy Bible, and it contains special revelation of who God is and what He expects from His creation. It answers the major questions of life: (1) Who are we?, (2) Where did we come from and where are we going?, (3) What I am supposed to do with my life?, (4) What happens to me when I die?, (5) What’s wrong with the world?, and (6) How do we fix the problems in the world?

One of the great deceptions of philosophical thought is: Ignorance is bliss. Ignorance is not bliss; it is costly with devastating outcomes. Ignorance will cause you to fail a test, lose a tournament, and more importantly, keep you from knowing God’s will for your life. Failure to know God’s purpose and plan for your life has eternal consequences!

Let’s learn from my academic tutor, and Dustin Johnson, that a wise person is one who has set aside the time to “read their notes”. If there is a God, then nothing is more important than knowing how to live according to His purpose and plan. It is possible to know God’s will for your life, but you have to open the Holy Bible and “read your notes”!