When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. (John 21:7, ESV)
Which came first, the golfer or the golf fan?
Your answer to this question may be different than mine. I was first a golf fan. That is, I was a fan of my dad and my dad was a golfer. He made a golfer of me, too, and in those terms I was a golfer before I became a fan of those who played it for a living. Through the years I’ve admired my favorites, but as I have had opportunity to help many tour players tell their stories of faith, I find myself rooting for those men and women whenever they’re near the top of a leaderboard. Like Sunday and Webb Simpson.
Simpson was a good player before he won the US Open or the Players Championship, of course, but those victories went a long way to drawing our interest in his direction. But he has earned our respect as well, because of the way he speaks of his wife and children, the way he teams with his caddie Paul Tesori, and how he leads the PGA Tour, as one writer put it this week, in Strokes Gained: Attitude.
The moment Peter realized who this was, he threw on his outer clothes, jumped in the sea, and hastened to Jesus. Now Peter pursued his Lord.Six years ago, 18 months after his US Open win at the Olympic Club, we featured Simpson in the Links Players magazine. In that article (you can read the whole thing here), Webb spoke of a day in his young adult life when “I began pursuing a relationship with the Lord rather than just having one.” It’s the kind of statement that draws a line, much like Randy Wolff’s devotion yesterday, where he asked whether we are casual Christians or committed ones.
As we so often can, we may find help in sorting out the answer as it fits ourselves by drawing on the story of one of Scripture’s many key figures. Peter was a fisherman with a big personality, always speaking up, which sometimes meant saying the very wrong thing at the very wrong time. Most indecorously, he made a fool of himself by proudly announcing he would be right there alongside Jesus when the Lord went to his death. Instead, Peter found himself doing as Jesus predicted: publicly denying his master three times, with increasing adamancy. Maybe, for all his big boy words, Peter was only a casual follower of Jesus.
But when Jesus returned, alive and engaging, he stood on the shore calling to Peter and the others out at sea. And the moment Peter realized who this was, he threw on his outer clothes, jumped in the sea, and hastened to Jesus. Now Peter pursued his Lord.
What a picture for us! We can be so smooth, so cool about our faith. But that’s a casual way to go about it, and it doesn’t say much for us or for Jesus. Instead, we can pick up where Webb Simpson did and get serious about the way we follow Jesus. We can say yes, as Randy wrote of. And then we can say yes again and again and again—for this is the sign of a pursuing follower, one who won’t quit until crossing the finish line.
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Jeff Hopper
February 5, 2020
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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