I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. (Psalm 86:12, NIV)
Among the surprises of the 2019 PGA Tour season was that we suddenly became familiar with Amy Bockerstette. It didn’t take long. Just the length of time needed to play a par-3.
Bockerstette was the unheralded collegiate player who joined Gary Woodland on the sixteenth tee during his practice round for the Phoenix Waste Management Open. Down syndrome has only allowed Amy only a diminutive stature, but her spirit is huge, and it showed that day. She took a lash at her tee shot, which wound up in the greenside bunker. Woodland offered to get it out for her, but she was ready to play the shot. “I got this,” she told him. Which she did. She also “got” the putt for par, and everyone went off that day with smiles.
But the Amy Bockerstette phenomenon would not stop. The video of her three shots is the most viewed PGA Tour video ever to play on social media. Not Tiger. Not Rory. Not Phil. Amy. From that day in Scottsdale, Amy emerged with a foundation dedicated to helping others with Down syndrome learn and enjoy the game.
That, friends, is glory. When something is made bigger than it otherwise would be, it has gained glory. At least in the human sense.
We should always look for ways to glorify God—to make him bigger in the eyes of others.It’s different with God. God cannot be made bigger. He is as big as they come. But God can be made bigger in our hearts and in our minds. It’s like a telescope, teaches John Piper, where something brilliant and vast is brought into our view like never before.
Jesus taught that those who shine do so with their good deeds, and that by way of those works, others glorify God (Matthew 5:16). We become the telescope that opens the eyes of those who may have yet to believe. How does this happen? By the way God is working in us. He is, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, transforming us into the image of Christ with ever-increasing glory.
We should always look for ways to glorify God—to make him bigger in the eyes of others. But in the wonder of our relationship with him, he is placing his glory within us, that we might reflect him in a way we certainly could not otherwise do. What a reason to enjoy relationship with him!
—
Jeff Hopper
June 12, 2020
Copyright 2020 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
OTHER DEVOTIONS IN THIS SERIES
Relating to God 1: Relationships
Relating to God 2: Those Who Believe
Relating to God 3: Those Who Love God
Relating to God 4: Those Who Honor God
Relating to God 5: Those Who Obey God
Relating to God 6: Those Who Sit With God
Relating to God 7: Those Who Cry Out
Relating to God 8: Those Who Praise God
Relating to God 9: Those Who Serve God