On the contrary, those parts that seem to be weaker are indispensable. (1 Corinthians 12:22, NIV)
It does not always happen that the most compelling story from a sporting event belongs to the winner. Many were captured this past weekend with the play of 19-year-old Chilean Joaquín Neimann at the Memorial Tournament. The victory went to Bryson DeChambeau, but many kept asking, “How’s that kid doing?”
When you flipped the channel to the US Women’s Open, though, the story and the winner were one and the same. Eventually.
Yes, Sarah Jane Smith caught our attention through Friday, but then Ariya Jutanugarn, one of the world’s best and brightest young stars, seized control with a Saturday 67. By mid-round Sunday, the tournament was “decided.” Jutanugarn held a seven-shot lead at the turn.
In the body of Christ, fame is meaningless. All are lifted up to deliver the value they have been given by God.Then came the triple at the tenth. The bogey at the twelfth. The flawless play of South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim. After a horrendous 8-iron lay-up at the seventeenth, the lead was nearly gone. Jutanugarn would need par at the last to seal the win. She bogeyed. In nine shaky holes, the seven-shot lead was gone. But was Jutanugarn, who suddenly found herself in a two-hole playoff?
The playoff started with a roar—for Kim. The Korean slid in a 25-foot birdie putt to put the pressure on Jutanugarn, whose putt was half the length. She missed. Now it was Kim who had a lead to hold.
She could not. Back at the eighteenth for the second hole of the playoff, Kim bogeyed from the same bunker that had thwarted Jutanugarn not an hour earlier. They would go on. To a third hole, then a fourth.
Both players sent their approaches in the right greenside bunker this time, leaving long blasts to a green running downhill to the flag and then to the water. Kim came out to 15 feet or so, Jutanugarn to 18 inches. When Kim missed, the story needed only a jot and tittle for completion. Jutanugarn tapped in, and long after all had expected, she could finally lift the trophy. She is Thailand’s first US Women’s Open champion.
Even when we know the outcome, as we often do with sports, reading a story like this can bring us to attention. So many nuances, so much tension. Maybe we get dreamy when we stand back and look at our own lives. What if we had a story like this, a true tale to tell our kids, our grandkids, and everyone in-between?
Most of us don’t. We aren’t headline makers or social media icons or even the objects of office gossip. Like Sarah Jane, we’re plain, slipping into the crowd when the time comes for the recaps to be written.
Don’t fret this. In the body of Christ, fame is meaningless. All are lifted up to deliver the value they have been given by God. Is your work for him the spiritual equivalent of garbage man? Take pride! Without garbage men, what do we have? Garbage!
You do not need the accolades of others. You need only the equipping of God for the work he gives you. Take that and make it your mission, blessing the men and women of God with it. That will give you story enough.
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Jeff Hopper
June 5, 2018
Copyright 2018 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.