The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, God, You will not despise. (Psalm 51:17, NASB)
This game of golf will break you. It happened to me in the fall of 1973 (and many times after as well). I had just lost my playing privileges on the PGA Tour; I hated golf and did not want to pursue this dream anymore.
My wife and two-year-old daughter were crying in the back seat as we left my last Tour event. I was crying on the inside as I crushed the steering wheel driving down the Interstate. How can a game have so much effect on a man’s soul?
We also experience tribulations in life, not just health issues and traumatic experiences but also suffering during life’s detours and unexpected changes. Even in following Jesus, we are guaranteed to suffer, all for a reason. I have discovered that there is a treasure in the darkness.
Tim Philpot talks a lot about this in his awesome book, Player’s Progress, a golfer’s Journey to Wisdom (get the book on Amazon). Tim writes:
God permits trouble to pursue us, as though He were indifferent to its overwhelming pressure, that we may be brought to the end of ourselves and led to discover the treasures of darkness, the immeasurable gains of tribulation.
Our sufferings become a treasure because we let them bring us to God. You could do the same if you can find your pain. It is there. Let your pain lead you to Him.
So, my brokenness did not end with leaving the Tour. I was 30 and had a growing family with no job or prospects. And I did not have a relationship with Jesus; I just knew about Jesus.
Well, God provided, and I did not even realize it then. My following two jobs came about because of golf. Thirteen years later, Jesus found me because I was lost. This led me into a full-time ministry, which eventually placed me in God’s calling for my life—a golf ministry known as Links Players.
As I read the Bible now, I see brokenness throughout. Jacob was broken when his hip was wrenched. Moses was broken and spent 40 years herding sheep in the desert. Peter and Paul were broken before they could be used. Everyone who eventually was used by God started with a brokenness that God used for an ultimate purpose.
The brokenness may not be a debilitating disease, the loss of a loved one, or even the deterioration of that valued relationship with a friend or family member.
Everyone reading this may have their own list from the past, or you may be experiencing a stage of brokenness now. It could be as silly as losing your Tour card, which we all know is not a third-world problem.
All of life’s upheavals and victories come our way for a purpose when we are on the trail with Jesus. Or should I say, when these trials get us on the trail to follow Jesus! They all could lead to a treasure that we could not have gained any other way—a period of darkness, confusion, and doubt that will lead us to Jesus, our ultimate Treasure.
I close with this quote from Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman: “And it was when Jesus allowed His precious body to be broken by thorns, nails, and a spear that His inner life was poured out like an ocean of crystal-clear water, for thirsty sinners to drink and then live.”
Prayer – Jesus, in the end, you are the end of all things. You are the Treasure in the darkness.