And he (Jesus) answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.” (Luke 7:22, ESV)
Summertime is prime recruitment season for up-and-coming junior players. College coaches rely heavily on the summer months to conduct the bulk of their recruiting so not conflict with the regular school year when our teams are on campus. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the NCAA continues to extend the dead period, when no direct recruiting is allowed. So even in this prime season, we cannot watch players play or welcome them to campus.
In turn, I have received my fair share of emails from junior golfers passing along their resumes and swing videos. I often find that the players who send the most extensive emails and recruiting videos have a higher stroke average, which they usually put at the very end of a four-page novel. Not always, but in general, the better players say fewer words and share scores within the first paragraph or perhaps even the subject line.
When I do get to watch juniors play, I think of what one Hall of Fame coach told me he sees on the course. He sees three types of players. First, are the players who light up like a neon sign that they are studs and can flat play. Second, are your fringe players who have the ability to post a number but not consistently, as they may very well go 70-80 in consecutive rounds. Third, are your players who are giving it all they’ve got, but with their fundamentals being not quite right, they continue to scrape it around and not really improve much; their scores and finishes confirm it.
We do not and cannot live perfect lives, but we can lean on the one who did.
Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t just go after the neon sign people, the best salaries, or even the people with the most eloquent speeches or social media followers. Time and time again, Jesus stopped in small towns and healed the outcasts whom society deemed “less than.”
Jesus does not discriminate against anyone because of their race, age, disability, ability, or past. We see in Jesus’ ministry that he was harshest with the Pharisees, scribes, and religious leaders of the day. They knew what the Scriptures said but missed the heart of the message. They were what Jesus called “whitewashed tombs”—beautiful on the outside but full of dead bones on the inside.
The bad news is that we are all human, imperfect and flawed. We do not and cannot live perfect lives, but we can lean on the one who did. Regardless of how long you have known Jesus, whether you have grown up inside or outside the church, even if you have walked away or find yourself questioning, Jesus calls the broken and the needy unto himself. Try as we might, maybe listening to the most famous preachers or reading all the bigwig theologians, knowledge is not was saves us. We just can’t get to God in our own way.
But far greater than the bad news is the good news: Jesus left heaven and came to earth so that we could have salvation and a relationship of intimacy, love, forgiveness, and grace with God the Father. We do not have to prove our worth or value to God, because he made us and already knows that there is nothing we can do to make him love us any more or any less. God’s love is unconditional, and he pursues us by going after our hearts, all who are weary and heavy laden.
—
Aimee Neff
August 20, 2020
Copyright 2020 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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