“This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:12-13, CSB)
America lost a great leader, his children lost a great father, and we lost a great golfer when George H. W. Bush passed away on November 30, 2018.
41 (as he was affectionately known) was not a great golfer in the sense of being an exceptional player. His grandfather started the Walker Cup, his father won eight club championships, and though President Bush (41) didn’t measure up to those lofty heights, he was quite good.
But he was a great golfer in the sense that he truly loved the game, played it often (and fast), and used it as common ground on which to meet with friends and detractors. In other words, 41 acted like a Links Player.
In his tribute to his father, President George W. Bush (43) noted that his father wasn’t perfect. He said, “His short game was lousy.” Others over time have criticized him for failings both real and imagined, both weighty and trivial. He was, like all of us both in golf and life, imperfect.
He was a war hero, a congressman, head of the CIA, and of course President, but in all of that he was a servant.But the stories told of him at the funeral service held at the National Cathedral brought light to his humility and his desire to serve others. He was a war hero, a congressman, head of the CIA, and of course President, but in all of that he was a servant. He loved his friends and family and country deeply.
Sometimes he suffered for that. Two years after the candidate George Bush had famously said, “Read my lips. No new taxes,” a bipartisan congressional delegation came to him with a bill they had drafted, which included important legislation on health care, Social Security solvency, entitlement reform, and budgeting. But they needed revenue to make it work.
After some discussion he agreed to support them, noting that it would be “a real punch in the gut” for him, but that it was not about him, it was about the country. The bill passed with strong bipartisan support, but Bush’s party turned against him. It was a sacrifice that helped ensure his “return to private life,” according to Alan Simpson.
Of course, the greatest sacrifice ever made by a leader was Jesus Christ laying down his life for us. Bush did not give his physical life for his country, though as a military man he had demonstrated a willingness to do so; but with the stroke of a pen, he sacrificed his political future.
Would we be willing to lay down our life for our friends, as Jesus did? Would we even be willing to sacrifice the presidency to help the country? The answers lie in our love for others, especially compared to our love for ourselves.
May we all play golf as fast and serve as well as 41, and may we all love the way Jesus loved.
—
Lewis Greer
December 17, 2018
Copyright 2018 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
Photo: George Bush Presidential Library and Museum