If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. (Galatians 6:3, NIV)
I grew up belonging to a country club but focused solely on tennis in my youth. I came to golf later in life and didn’t score my first set of clubs until my mid-20s. Sometimes, I wish I had taken advantage of the access I had, but who knows, maybe a lack of patience then would have stolen my love of the game now.
On a recent Sunday, rather than a message from our senior pastor, we heard short sermons from five young adults. As I watched them share their stories, I thought about my own and lamented that I had been so lost at their age. However, without my wandering then, I might not have the mission field I do now.
Despite our past, and in many cases because of it, God is able to use us in ways we don’t see coming. While certainly not as noteworthy as Saul’s conversion, I am somehow being used for His purpose through the game of golf.
Today’s verse is an accurate description of me pre-Jesus. Good job. Nice house. Country club membership. Full of myself.
I have no time to get in the weeds, but since those pre-Jesus days, I have been saved by grace and now realize humility is more attractive than hubris. God had to humble me to realize how deceived I was.
Links Players President Jeffrey Cranford likens us to lizards in kings’ palaces (Proverbs 30:28). So we find ourselves behind these gated walls. Now what?
We are to be the city built on a hill. We are to put our lamp on its stand. We are to let our light shine before others (Matthew 5:14-16). As Paul emphasized in Philippians 4:11-12, we must show that joy is still available when life gets more complicated than birdies and beverages.
If I’m being honest, I’m not happy about my current circumstances. I don’t like watching my wife suffer daily from cancer. I am sad that my mom suffered a stroke and is confined to a bed with no mobility. I am upset that my 22-year-old daughter is having to learn to navigate life as a newly diagnosed diabetic. And I’m uneasy knowing that my heart is as out of rhythm as the rest of my life (due to arrhythmia).
However, because it is God’s will for us, I have learned to be thankful in my circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18). I am grateful for the prayers at the end of each call with our Christian-based insurance Medi-Share. My heart gets filled each time my mom musters her wry smile and asks, “How did you find me?” I am thankful for technology that lets me look at my phone and know exactly what Jane’s blood sugar level is. And Susan and I thank God for the platform to share Christ through what one friend terms ‘suffering well.’
Despite the pain of our present, we endure knowing that through it, there will be fruit in someone else’s future.
Our life experiences put us in a position to influence others. As Links Players, we have been given the unique opportunity to influence the influential.
Therefore, “let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).
Prayer: Lord, help us not hide our light under a bowl but let it shine before others at our clubs.