Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52, NIV)
Simple question to start today: Did the Masters live up to the hype?
When it comes to the majors, it’s hard to quantify the anticipation anymore. As my wife says when she walks in on Golf Channel’s Live At shows, “How can they fill three days talking about something that hasn’t happened yet?” I don’t have the heart to tell her how much is being written as well.
Among all the hyperbole and analysis, though, there may be no greater refrain than this one: “Win the Masters (or choose your major) and it will change your life.” In fact, I seemed to notice that the expression was being used so much early last week that a few of the game’s talking heads finally began to hedge toward circumspection: “It’ll change your year.” Or “It’ll change your career.”
Unless you’ve won a major before, it is quite possible that snagging a green jacket or a claret jug will indeed change your life. But on the other side of that coin is the question of whether it changes your life for the better. Surely, it opens a lot of professional golf’s doors, as well as many sponsors’ pocketbooks. But it can also place new demands on your time, your character, and your expectations. Sometimes it can do this almost overnight.
If we let them, changes can push us closer to God and draw those who see our response closer to him, too.
But guess what else can change your life?
Marriage.
Job loss.
Children.
A catastrophic accident.
The list could go on, populated with events we might call good or bad at first glance. But assessing the changes these events bring takes time.
Paul and Michelle Tesori (Paul is Webb Simpson’s caddie) knew their lives would change with the coming of their son, Isaiah. They knew it even more when Isaiah was diagnosed with Down syndrome. And while the demands on their time, character, and expectations were significantly altered immediately, the working out of these changes in the Tesoris’ lives is something they have embraced and through which they have seen God.
The Tesoris say this on their family foundation website: “What we’ve been witness to over the past few years is just how many lives God has touched through Isaiah’s story.” The changes they have been willing to live through and live out have led to God-touched changes for many, many others.
When Paul wrote to the Corinthians of the change that will come over all who believe, he was looking to the life beyond this life. It will be stunning and everlasting. But the changes that come in this life can have great impact, too. If we let them, they can push us closer to God and draw those who see our response closer to him, too.
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Jeff Hopper
April 13, 2021
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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