If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:11, NIV)
Golf, like many sports, isn’t always sure what to do with its traditions.
Take the case of Bryson DeChambeau, the five-time PGA Tour winner and US Ryder Cup team member. At 25, he straddles the line between old and new. A lover of golf’s history, he sports a hat style that defers to Ben Hogan, an icon who passed away before DeChambeau had reached his fourth birthday. The two never met, but DeChambeau respects The Hawk with a nod of his cap.
Apart from the historical regard, DeChambeau has earned nicknames of his own: the Mad Scientist, the Professor. He is a human calculator of sorts, considering factors like air density and local slope adjustment before each shot from the fairway. Add to this that he is a young gun, blasting it 300 yards and more off the tee, and the California kid is definitely right now.
Our lives are meant to be lived in between—in the past and in the present, in the temporary and the eternal.It is not uncommon for followers of Jesus to similarly wrestle with the way the past and the present come together. We worship an eternal God, read an ancient revelation, and live in the 21st Century, where pastor-teachers ride the circuit of YouTube and Twitter.
Amidst this mashup, it can be hard to discern who it is we should listen to and just which instructions we should follow. Is everything in the Bible meant for today? Have the doctrinal progressions of our lifetimes stepped outside the boundaries of God’s intent? Should we still follow Paul as Paul followed Christ, or does it make more sense for us to follow a pastor who understands the cultural place at which we’ve arrived?
Difficult questions like this are why I love Peter’s appeal to his readers (“God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout…”). He wrote, in summary, that we should follow God. Speak God’s words. Draw on God’s strength. God is our guide.
This does not mean, of course, that we won’t find good examples and good counsel from God’s people. Indeed, Peter was writing to those who speak and those who serve. We will hear them and see them and learn from them. But what this means is that our lives are meant to be lived in between—in the past and in the present, in the temporary and the eternal. We turn to the enduring God, asking for the guidance and power of his Spirit; we do so because we need him right now.
You will not speak or serve precisely as another brother or sister in the Lord. You are not called to their time or their place. You are called to glorify God right where you are, today. And to do this well, you will need God, the Ancient of Days himself, to equip you.
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Jeff Hopper
July 16, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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