Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. (Ephesians 4:14, NIV)
The last thing an athlete wants the week before a big game is to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. There’s a curse, you know. Somehow or other, a player whose face or feats illumine the front of that widely read magazine is “known” to be headed for a fall.
That’s why we’ve had so much fun through the years speaking of the “Links Letter Blessing.” On an inordinate number of occasions, a player we have featured in the Links Letter (now Links Players Magazine) has soon after won a tournament, sometimes for the first time or the first time in a long time.
It happened again this past weekend. In the first LPGA event since the 2013 edition released with her testimony in it, Jiyai Shin captured the Women’s Australian Open. And Blayne Barber, whose story of disqualifying himself from last fall’s Tour Q-School produced an aching read, Monday-qualified for the Northern Trust Open in Los Angeles, then made the cut and finished tied for 42nd in his first PGA Tour event.
So what gives? Are we superstitious?
No, we’re not—because we can also tell you the stories of those like Bryce Molder, a four-time All-American whom we placed on our cover in 2003. Molder was slated to be one of those next-sure-thing players with a bright Tour future ahead. But it took him eight years to finally win on the PGA Tour, and while he is firmly competitive there now, the road was long and difficult–not what too many of us would deem a “blessing.”
This is, despite every odd promise being made by Spirit-demanding optimistic preachers, the truth of life in Christ. Some have it easy, some quite hard. When Jesus told Peter that he would suffer death for his service in the kingdom, the apostle wanted to know if this would be John’s lot, too. Jesus told him that such insight was not for Peter to know.
We each live according to the story God has written for us alone. While we may be tempted to employ some unique method or shortcut, a superstitious practice or conjurer’s prayer, all we can really do is affix our lives to the sovereignty of God and the grace of Christ. That is what is sufficient for us. Much else is dangerous doctrine, exerted by the enemy to knock us off the course of truth. We cannot by sidebar doctrines or mystical practices influence what God has in store for us, but we can know this: he provides his very best for who we are and what he plans for us.
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Jeff Hopper
February 20, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.