Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. (John 5:8-9, NIV)
None of us would ever expect that two golfers, even two receiving similar instruction from the same teacher, would encounter the same situations in a round of golf. Playing together, one might hit it left in the trees several times during the day, while the other would keep catching the edges of bunkers.
In golf, this is normal, just as one player will by speed hit it longer and the other by touch putt far better.
Though the basic principles of a sound swing cut across the spectrum of golfers, the talents each brings to the course, and the challenges each faces during a given round never look alike.
This does not mean, of course, that we respond as we should to this differentiation. I yearn to hit it longer and pitch to an open green more accurately, something I recognize every time I play with a big hitter or someone with an excellent wedge game. But my irons are under control, I can pull off demanding flop shots, and I make a lot of putts—you may want those strengths of mine.
I can’t earn hope. I can’t manufacture hope. But I can make a choice as to where to place my hope.Sadly, there is far too much similarity here between what we find among golfers and what happens in the kingdom of God. You might even call it “Christian covetousness,” where we don’t want our neighbor’s material possessions, but rather the talents and circumstances of our brother or sister in the kingdom:
Why can’t I have a heart of compassion like he does?
If only God would heal my arthritis as he healed hers!
Why is their marriage the easy one?
The venerable Christian leader John Stott once reminded his readers of a vital kingdom principle when he wrote that “it is spiritual graces which should be common to all Christians, not spiritual gifts or spiritual experiences.”
Jesus healed one man at the Bethesda pool, but what of the others? Was there no grace for them? Surely there was. But it did not, on that day at least, take the form of physical restoration. Jesus knew the grace that one man needed.
And Jesus knows the grace you need. He will, assuredly, give you that grace. But while your grace may come as you minister among the homeless and carry home the illnesses and dark reflections of that ministry, the grace another receives may come amidst the ability to turn dimes into dollars then freely release large funds so that the financial needs of your ministry will be met. In that difference, you will go home to a studio and the other to an estate; but in Christ, you will both go home to his grace.
—
Jeff Hopper
Originally published June 28, 2011
Copyright 2011 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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