Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10a, NIV)
I know, I know. Golf is an individual sport. I bear the consequences of my own misdeeds and receive the accolades for a shot well struck.
Except that it is frequently untrue. So much of the time in the amateur game, we stand on the first tee and divide our four—two on this side, two on that. Suddenly you’ve got a partner.
Name your Cup—Ryder, Solheim, Presidents, Curtis, Walker—and these too employ more partner play than individual matches. When captains in these events are criticized, it’s rarely for how they sent out their singles on the last day of competition; it’s for how they paired their players in the four-ball and foursome matches.
In the West, probably most in North America, individualism gets a lot of play. More recently, it also gets a lot of scrutiny. Is individualism the bane of a healthy society?, contemporary inquirers want to know. Sociology is a complicated consideration, but we do know what the Bible says: Partnership is a good thing. Very good.
Individualistic as we may be, only a rare person wants to go through trouble alone.In the creation account of Genesis, the Lord continued to “see that it was good,” as each phase came into existence, right through to the animals, “according to their kinds.” But when God made Adam, the man, something quite suddenly was “not good.” It was not good that this man should be alone. And so God made Eve, the woman. And together, they were rightly partnered.
It was not only of the marriage partnership that Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes. Any two can come alongside each other in assistance. We have made a caricature through the years of Mrs. Fletcher’s desperate cry in the 1980s LifeCall commercial: “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” But if Solomon had been in marketing, this may have been his most effective catchphrase. Individualistic as we may be, only a rare person wants to go through trouble alone.
Solomon’s examples included two cold people warming one another, and two challenged fighters who could defend themselves as a team. And then he extended his pictures beyond duos: “A strand of three cords is not easily broken.”
Jesus sent his disciples out to minister in pairs. Paul seemed always to have a traveling band and companions even when locked down. And Peter, though solitarily confided, was rescued by angels, who literally escorted him from prison.
Don’t live life alone. It’s no good. Find a friend, be a friend, helped and be helped. You’ll be amazed at the way God supplies your needs through others.
—
Jeff Hopper
February 26, 2020
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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