So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31, NIV)
Let’s say your golf couldn’t go with you.
What does that mean? It means you show up at the club each day in your business clothes. You change in the locker room and maybe sit to read a golf magazine while sipping your Arnold Palmer. Then you pick up your clubs on the way to range, warm up, and head to the first tee. When you’re done, you sit with your friends and talk about the round over a meal, with a tour event on the big screen off to the side. Then you return to the locker room, take your shower, change back into your business clothes, hop into your car, and drive back into “the other world.”
Now here are the rules: In the other world, you cannot talk about golf. You cannot wear golf shirts or shorts. You cannot read about golf or watch it on TV. You cannot take a golf vacation. In fact, because your tee time is pre-selected and set as a regular activity, you cannot even plan to play golf outside of that routine.
Absurd? Of course. And yet more and more in our time, we hear the suggestion that faith should be lived over here and everything else should be lived over there.
Well, here’s some big news for you. If you call yourself a Links Player, you can’t let yourself be led in that separatist direction. Why? Because the second aspect of each Links Player’s mission is this: “Integrate Christ’s reign and authority into all of life.” For a Links Player, there is no such thing as a compartmentalized faith. Life in the kingdom of God happens everywhere, all the time.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians that whether eating or drinking or whatever you do, do for God’s glory. Giving God his glory begins with giving him his reign. And this king’s reign stretches to every corner of his kingdom.
I found myself in the middle of a recent conversation between two old schoolmates. They spoke of their sensei, their martial arts teacher in high school. The one acquaintance said to the other, “I’ve often considered how the philosophies by which I live my life and run my business go back to the teaching we received from that sensei.” You see, no one in their right mind challenges the fact that life is lived according to the philosophies we espouse—until it comes to following Jesus. Then the challenge is raised: “Keep that faith stuff in your church.”
Against this thinking, we must respectfully make our apologies. “If Christ was not raised,” Paul wrote to those same Corinthians, “nothing else matters.” But because he was raised, because he lives now, because he reigns, we must look to serve him in every which way, just as he has served us. We do this in our homes, our schools, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our golf clubs, our entertainment venues, our town halls; we do this everywhere.
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Jeff Hopper
August 13, 2012
Copyright 2012 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.