Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7, NIV)
A naturally good swing and an innate ability to hit the ball solidly served me pretty well as a junior golfer. In high school, I would play soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, and then just pick up my clubs in the spring after six or seven months off and start playing for our high school team. I lost little timing and I occasionally won matches and tournaments. I was even able to compete well enough to be named our county Player of the Year my junior season.
Now here’s where it gets funny. Going into my senior year, I remember telling my high school athletic director, who happened to be my basketball and golf coach, that I was not interested in playing college golf. However, I was interested in playing basketball at the next level. He made sure I understood that my pedigree and height of 5’10” leant itself more toward golf and that a scholarship was not very likely for me in basketball.
However, basketball was what I loved, not golf. I always thought that if I ever got the desire to play golf professionally in the future I could, since the physical ability was there. Well, it was not until my late twenties that I realized how much I actually liked golf, and wanted to try to play seriously. I became a really good range player as my swing only got better, and started to shoot some pretty low scores; however, I noticed that when it really mattered in competition that I was missing something. There was something intangible that I could not put my finger on, but it was keeping me from playing at the level I needed to compete at the highest level.
Looking back now, I see that during all those years I spent not loving golf I missed out on developing some of the necessary intangibles. I’m not the only one like this; you see it in other young athletes who burn out from being pushed too much by parents or coaches rather than by their own passion. Only those who truly love what they do become the great ones.
I do often regret not having passionately pursued golf young because I never really got to see what I could have become as a golfer, but thankfully that is not the case in our spiritual lives and in our walk with God. It is never too late for us to develop a Christ-like character and live a life evident that we are born of God. For some reason though, the message often emphasized in the Christian community is that the greatness of one’s faith is in their “sin management”—that is, in avoiding the don’ts. As we discussed yesterday, yes, we must work to remove the practice of sinning. However, it is a powerful do—the love for one another—that really sets God’s children apart. This love separates the Christ-following lifestyle from any other strict adherence to religion.
The apostle John wrote, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love… since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:8, 11b). These words came in the context of describing the characteristics of individuals born of God.
So just like I discovered good genes, good fundamentals, and a good swing will not lead to excellence in golf without a passion and love for the game, we cannot just have good morals, go to church, and read the Bible and expect to find favor in God’s eyes without truly living our life with compassion and love for others.
If you leave this series with nothing else, may you at least be encouraged to love others as a reflection of God’s love for you. Not discounting the need for faithful confession of Christ and ethical integrity as discussed the last couple days, it is love that completes the picture of a life in fellowship with God.
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Josh Nelson
January 9, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.