Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified… Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:22-24, NIV)
For a time, it was this: Maybe he can play again.
Then, the hopeful question: Do you think he can win?
By late last September, the target had moved again: Is it too much to dream of a major?
And now, riding the wings of one Sunday evening Tweet: “Congratulations, Tiger!!! This is only the beginning.”
Someone might need to break the news to that last guy. Tiger Woods is 43 years old. With eight majors already secured, had he never won after 2002, he could have been carved in the Golf’s Mt. Rushmore. The beginning is long past.
But we demand much of greatness. Today the crowd wants a win. Satisfy them and suddenly it’s not enough. Show us more. There must be more.
Greatness delivers. And The Greatest delivers in ways no one else can.It is hard to call this wrong. Even Jesus said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded” (Luke 12:48). We expect excellence again from those who have given it to us before, maybe especially from those who have given it to us before—even when their relationships and their bodies and their short games have been dismantled.
But it also gets me to wondering: What right do we have to demand more of Jesus?
This week we remember, more vividly than any other time of the year, what Jesus did for us, in Gethsemane, atop Calvary, from the empty tomb. Jesus bore the weight of our sin (all of it) and our sins (all of them). Jesus covered our guilt with the blood of his sacrifice on the cross. Jesus raised us from our own death when he was raised from his own.
My chains are gone
I’ve been set free
My God, my Savior, has ransomed me
I know these words, lyrics by Chris Tomlin, to be true. Absolutely. Completely. And yet I will wake up tomorrow and the next day asking Christ for more. For forgiveness, again. For healing for my cancer-plagued friends. For salvation to strike home with those I know whose hearts are hard. For those in my church whose marriages are troubled or whose jobs are in question.
It all seems like so much trivia for the one who is so great, for the one who has already done all I really need. But that’s the point. Greatness delivers. And The Greatest delivers in ways no one else can. Not Tiger Woods. Nor a president of my preferred party. Not a new CEO in my corporation. Not a spouse or a child or a pastor or a friend. Only Jesus’ greatness is inexhaustible. Only Jesus can answer our hopes and our prayers any and every day.
—
Jeff Hopper
April 17, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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