Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.” (John 4:26, NIV)
I have shared only one long phone call with Mike Whan, the commissioner of the LPGA. Other than that, we don’t know each other. But since that interview to prepare his story for the Links Players Magazine in 2016, I have kept an eye on this man’s work, because I came away respecting him greatly for the way he has allowed God to direct his paths.
Let me boil down what I know from what I’ve observed on social media and in the press. This man walks in a woman’s world, but there he is a champion for women and what they can accomplish in sport like no one you can imagine. From the other side, the players love him and the LPGA Tour continues to gain ground among sponsors and spectators like never before. The LPGA may be based in the United States, but its reach is absolutely global and its joint initiative with the USGA to bring girls into the game has established wonderful momentum.
When I consider the way men walk among women in our own time, I see a disturbing measure of brokenness. We may call this the consequences of sin, but it does not make the picture any less heartbreaking. Far too frequently women are treated as objects of male pursuit, where they become subject to abuse of all kinds.
When we know why we talk to someone, we stand the chance of making conversational inroads with eternal ramifications.In Christian circles, the problem looks more like awkwardness. Often men are so concerned that they cannot trust their own purity that they can’t look at or speak to women, well, as Jesus did.
And so we come to John 4. One man and one woman in a private interaction. Talk to most devout men and they would call it the nightmare scenario, fraught with the dangers of temptation. I will not challenge this fear or the avoidance of such a situation, because “each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5). But I will ask all of us, no matter how devout we think we are or aren’t, what it was about Jesus that day that gave him the spiritual wherewithal to exchange more than pleasantries with the woman he met at the well.
First, Jesus was confident in his purity. Brothers, if this is not where you are in your walk, you need to be careful. But you also need to recognize whose power is in you. God will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. Base your confidence on this promise and the strength of the one who made it.
Second, Jesus stayed close to his purpose. When we know why we talk to anyone—male or female, one of our background or not, one who believes or who is antagonistic to the faith—we stand the chance of making conversational inroads with eternal ramifications. You may be asking questions and listening well to the answers, but if your purpose remains before you as an ambassador of Christ, the Holy Spirit in you is the one who is truly leading the conversation, and even if you speak only 50 words, those words will be meaningful.
Third, Jesus always looked at the person rightly. I mentioned earlier that there is much pain to be seen in abandonment by fathers or the sexual conquests of base men or the expression that daughters won’t amount to much compared to sons. But do we see this pain when we look at others individually? We forgive a blind man for stumbling into us in a way we would not with someone who is just being reckless. So many of the people we meet, men and women, are walking in the darkness of spiritual blindness. Shouldn’t this change the way we see them and talk to them and care about them?
Men, we must be men like Jesus, caring for women in a way that so many are not. Let’s pray that God allows us such a privilege, for if he does, he is allowing us to be like his Son.
Tomorrow: The woman and her open spirit
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Jeff Hopper
May 30, 2018
Copyright 2018 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.