When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:54, NIV)
I have always enjoyed match play, but a recent match was more than I could have hoped for.
The scene was team play, another love of mine. I’m playing as a 60+ Silver Senior now, but these matches still get me excited. After 10 holes on this day, though, my love was being tested. I was five down!
The night before I was having dinner with a friend whose own golf experience included competing in the US Amateur. So he was a great player, and when I asked him, he gave me a tip for match play. He said, “Your only goal is to win the next hole. That is all you focus on.”
So here I was, five down after 10 holes. I coached myself, based on my friend’s advice: “What do I have to lose? Only focus on the winning the next hole.” As it turned out, I pulled even in my match on seventeen, and on the eighteenth, I ended up winning with a par! (I think that’s worth more than one exclamation point, by the way, but they tell me I’m not allowed to do that.)
On another day, before talking to my friend, I probably would have counted myself as dead in that match. I have no realistic chance, I would have told myself. But in match play, I’ve learned, you’re not dead if there are still holes left.
Even in these hard days, he had such of sense of humor and always spoke a great testimony for Jesus.When I talk to others about the things they believe, I will often hear them say, “When you die, you die.” As a believer in Jesus, I can’t agree with this, because he said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). He also said that he was going away to prepare a place for us in paradise. The Son is Jesus himself, and I believe in him. When I die, my eternity with him is secure.
The apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthians went on to ask the questions of Hosea 13: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
I found myself reminded of these death-defying questions when I attended the recent celebration of life for a Links Player and friend who battled cancer for the past two years. Even in these hard days, he had such of sense of humor and always spoke a great testimony for Jesus.
During Mark’s service we were reminded that we need to mourn when we lose a friend, and we were told that we all mourn differently. I sure miss the friends I’ve lost, and I mourn because of their absence. But if they believe in Jesus as Mark did, I don’t mourn their present condition. How can I? They are with Jesus!!! (And this time, nobody had better erase all my exclamation points.)
—
Dereck Wong
August 7, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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