“You believe in God; believe also in me.” (John 14:1b, NIV)
If Western philosophy is marked by one dominant thought, it may be this: Honor yourself. Whereas other cultures through time and place have given priority to the community, in Western cultures the individual gets top billing.
One place this powerful idea shows up is in athletics, especially when it comes to individual sports like golf. Many times over, professional golfers have told me that the reason they got into golf was because the onus was on them. While they were let down by teammates in other sports, all the disappointment and all the rewards rested with them when it came to golf.
The recent trend among professional golfers has headed in the team direction, with the inclusion of swing coaches, personal trainers, managers, caddies, and sport psychologists. And yet, you still hear players frequently say, when asked how they came to holding this week’s trophy: “I just had to believe in myself.”
Belief in oneself when it is you against the field has bearing, I’m sure. But so much of life is lived outside our work space, in the spheres of relationships and health and eternal hope.
It’s not what you believe about eternal life that matters; it’s whether what you believe is true.
In the narratives of John’s Gospel, we encounter frequent long passages of Jesus’ teaching. At the end of John 13, Jesus candidly spoke of his betrayal and death. He told Peter that, in spite of Peter’s predictions, the brash disciple would deny him when the henchmen came to take Jesus to his death. So the Lord’s opening words in John 14 were not an abrupt turn, but a reminder that his disciples had reason for hope. He began: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
Then Jesus turned to the reason he could be trusted: God. They were believers in God. They had grown up trusting him. They could trust him now. But more than this, they could likewise trust Jesus, God’s Son. They had followed him, heard his wisest words, and declared their fealty to him. In the coming storm, he would still be there.
Believing in yourself has many limitations. It’s a platitude like those you hear about eternal life. When people speak of eternity, they toss about all kinds of ideas, including that eternity doesn’t exist. But it’s not what you believe about eternal life that matters; it’s whether what you believe is true. You can believe adamantly that when you die, you will simply be placed in a hole in the ground to decay until your flesh is no more. But if what’s true is that we will all stand before God and face his judgment (Hebrews 9:27), your present belief means nothing.
This is why Jesus’ words meant so much to the disciples and mean so much to us. We don’t have to believe in our error-prone selves, nor do we have to “hope against hope” that our theory of eternity is right. Instead, we have to believe the one who has always been and always will be. He is powerful enough to walk us through any darkness on this side of eternity and gracious enough to walk us into the light when our time to pass has come.
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Jeff Hopper
October 27, 2020
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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