Talk about [God’s words] when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (Deuteronomy 6:7, NIV 1984)
LPGA Tour Commissioner Mike Whan was asked this week by PGA Tour radio host Peter Kessler about his background in the game, suggesting that the commissioner seemed to really love the game.
Whan replied that he had indeed been introduced to the game when he was just a kid by his father. Then he went on to say words very close to these: “The funny thing in my family is that we always seemed to be able to have conversations on the golf course that we couldn’t have around the dinner table.” Then he added what many of us golfers know: the walking and talking between shots allows us to build connections on the course in a way that perhaps no other sport can.
It is hard, really, to come up with a much better practical lesson for those who call themselves Links Players and look to activate the fifth aspect of the LINKS acronym: Share Christ through the great game of golf.
Very often, we look at evangelism as the high-caliber field of uniquely trained ministers. We couldn’t be more wrong. Simply, evangelism equals sharing the good news in your life. If I go to the local casino and walk away having won more money and had more fun than at any other casino I’ve ever visited, I’m going to tell you my “good news.” I’m going to be an evangelist for that establishment. Personally, I am no patron of casinos; I use that example to show you how far the idea of evangelistic conversation can reach. And it doesn’t take a super bright aha! to recognize that nearly all of us who play golf are evangelists for the game. Many days it provides us with the “good news” for our next meeting with friends.
Another error we make when considering evangelism is thinking that it requires a sacred time and place. Where Deuteronomy 6 and Whan’s insights converge is at the point of realizing how natural our conversations about the best thing in our life—Jesus!—should fit into our day. If the fairways of a golf course allow for give-and-take like few other places, then let’s allow them to be our fireside, a comfortable location for telling you what good things are going on in my life.
Yes, you can sharpen your tools of evangelism, especially by learning the gospel as it is iterated in Scripture. But one of the best ways to set people to thinking about their own approach to Jesus is to tell them about the good he has done and continues to do in your life. It’s a personal thing. That is, what God is doing in you personally matters. But it matters most when you remove it from the private quarters of your life and bring it out into the room of living. It matters most when it gets you talking.
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Jeff Hopper
January 26, 2012
Copyright © 2012 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday through Friday at www.linksplayers.com.