For your ways are in full view of the LORD,
and he examines all your paths. (Proverbs 5:21, NIV)
Two weekends ago, Mark Wilson tied golf’s record for integrity. He called a disqualifying penalty on himself.
It was Bobby Jones who disdained credit for doing the right thing in golf, saying, “You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank as to praise him for playing by the rules.” But this does not mean we should dismiss examples of honesty every time they come our way. It is always helpful to be encouraged in doing right.
So let’s add Wilson’s right call to our list. Midway through the Barracuda Championship, where he was playing well in an attempt to fortify his status as a past champion, the five-time PGA Tour winner realized he was using an outdated greens book—a now-illegal outdated greens book. Its scale was one-eighth inch off what is allowed. Wilson had broken the Tour’s 2019 rules. He reported himself and was disqualified.
We are sinners, all of us, and we should look for ways to keep ourselves on the straight and narrow.Golfers choose integrity for many reasons. Most of us have been taught that this is the way it is in the game. Golfers self-report. Golfers come clean. In a game where we call dumb luck “the rub of the green,” honesty is an absolute. Or so it is meant to be. But people are people, and not every golfer gets the memo, as they say. The same is true in society. You may have first learned this the day the teacher kept the whole class after school for the misdeeds of one bad actor. Of course, we are sinners, all of us, and we should look for ways to keep ourselves on the straight and narrow.
One exceptional way to adhere to righteousness is to remember the eyes of God. Solomon wrote of this in the context of a young man who might sneak off in the night for a tryst with an adulterous woman. “Your clever ways,” he reminded his sons, “aren’t hidden from God. He sees all that you do.”
In the same way, God is looking for good: “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). Those who are doing the right thing have no fear of being found out.
This is only a little lesson today. A reminder, really. God’s eyes are open toward you. Are yours open toward him? Are you looking to do things rightly? Because he is eager to see you do things right.
—
Jeff Hopper
August 6, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.