But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me. (Psalm 26:11, ESV)
When the putt for the par you really want softly lips out, it’s easy to curse your bad luck. But a half dimple to the left and the ball would have fallen in. But for the shabby work of the greenskeeper. But for the tilt of the earth.
But for that drive you hit under the tree forcing you to punch out.
Golf is a game of keeping score. After every hole, we write down a number. And we walk away thinking how we might have gone one better. But usually that assessment comes too late. We think of the end, not the beginning. We’re hesitant to admit we have just paid the price for an early error.
As we try to divorce ourselves from the dark year that was 2020, it can be easy to aim our blame at places where it does not belong. Usually this is at the things right before us. We’re hesitant to admit that we might be paying the price for the sins of our past.
Of course, if we know our Bible and the basics of whatever catechism we may have received, the Fall, that first miserable sin of Adam and Eve in the garden, takes up residence in our theology. And this is no mansion. It’s more like a crack house. Every bad thing came from the Fall. Every consequence, big and small. A little apple is the source of all this? Sadly, yes. But we have all eaten forbidden fruit, setting our way of viewing the world above God’s. We know better than he does, we think. And we are wrong. Terribly wrong.
The community, the nation, and the world around us all may be suffering from the consequences of sin, yet we can be different.I read this news lead just a few days ago: “Federal watchdogs who guard against fraud foresee plenty of work to keep them busy [in 2021]: from more than 100 investigations related to the coronavirus pandemic to new probes over misuse of some of the nearly $2.5 trillion in stimulus money.” This should not surprise us. For all the claims of fraud that populated every information wavelength in 2020, we cannot deny that a certain percentage of them are real. And the consequences? For one, enlarging government expenditures in time and money on investigations of veracity. Sure, we can complain about government waste, but have we gone backwards to find out why we’re spending money we don’t need to spend? In this case, the tragic genesis is sin again: cheating and lies—a crippling breakdown in righteous integrity.
King David lived in a far more communal society than our own, yet he wrote, “As for me, I shall walk in integrity.” At the starting line of a new year, we have a chance to take up such a commission for ourselves. The community, the nation, and the world around us all may be suffering from the consequences of sin, yet we can be different. One by one, the followers of Jesus can say, “Let me be the one to do the right thing.” The collection of Christ’s righteousness shining through us can turn back the dark tides of falsehood and fraud. May the world look at the firm foundation of true living among God’s people and come to say, “I can believe again!”
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Jeff Hopper
January 4, 2021
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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