Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12, NIV)
It’s about time.
That’s what a number of I-know-better critics had to say after Rory McIlroy’s win at The Players on Sunday. These were the same voices that had been barking many weeks of late that Rory needed to toughen up and stop frittering away opportunities.
As far as Rory was concerned, the timing was just right. Perspective does that for you, we know, and McIlroy himself has been insisting that perspective is precisely what he has been gaining over the past year. So meaningful has this outlook been to Rory that he described it in religious terms after his winning round: “I’ve been preaching perspective, and I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on that perspective.” If the win says anything in response to that, it’s “Amen.”
Where does perspective come from? Several places, we know:
– Age. The longer a person lives, the more likely they are to diminish the importance of temporal things.
– Experience. McIlroy is just 29 years old, but with four major championship trophies on his shelves, as well as so many recent near misses, he had both highs and lows to draw from.
– Relationships. McIlroy’s marriage is less than two years old, but we can all attest to the how spouses, children, and others reveal our jagged edges and move us to behave like “adults.”
All of these are effective behavior modifiers, but none of them are absolutes (see cranky codgers, mouthy winners, bitter losers, and at-home jerks). Perspective in its rightest sense, perspective that births the broadest wisdom, springs from the gospel:
– I can’t. My sins, faithless decisions, and just plain bad judgment separate me from the holiness of God. I can never be good enough to win my case for heaven.
– God can. Somehow, in spite of all this, God has loved us enough to send his Son Jesus to die on a cross, covering our sins with his blood, then to rise again, an exalted King offer joint heirship with him to eternity.
To know and believe this gospel—to know and believe the one who authored and enacted it—is to gain all the perspective we’ll ever need. We’ll move through our days one by one, taking careful consideration of how today fits into a lifetime, how today fits into eternity.
—
Jeff Hopper
March 19, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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