“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!” (Matthew 5:43-44, NLT)
The team play season among the many clubs has begun here in Southern California. Teams battle it out to see which club can field the winning team in the end.
For a lot of athletes, the intensity of competition fades after their high school or college playing days are over. But because golf provides competitive opportunity well past our prime athletic years, the competitive spirit and its accompanying emotions stick with us—and it’s not always a pretty sight!
I was playing recently in a match, and I felt the competitive juices amp up. Thanks to the strokes I was getting from my opponent, we battled it out to the end. He was three up after 12 holes, but I had tied it by the seventeenth. With a final stroke at the last, I was able to hold on to that! My opponent was courteous to me during the match (though intense like me), but my partner’s opponent was cranky and contentious (more on that later).
Today’s verse caused me to reflect on the circumstances of that match. The framework of competition establishes enemies. And even a “refined sport” like golf can turn our mild-mannered hearts into angry dogs. Away from the game, we get upset at our family, friends, co-workers, or people who wrong us. We may not think of them as enemies at the time, but our hearts give us away.
No doubt, this is tough. I used to ask, “How can I love someone who has hurt me, Lord? You have to help me.” The verse that has helped me is Galatians 2:20a: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” I have realized that I can’t love or pray for my enemy on my own. But with Christ living in my heart, I can do all things, even love my enemies. It’s not my love, but Christ’s love flowing through me.
Jesus went on to challenge us to pray for our enemy or our neighbor. That’s another hard act. In one of our local Links Fellowship recently, a participant said of an antagonistic acquaintance, “I can’t believe that guy would ever become a Christ-follower.” I commented, “That is exactly the person Jesus wants us to reach—the one we think is our enemy or the one furthest from coming to God.” We should love them and pray for them, asking the Lord to bring them into his kingdom. Jesus loved his enemies so much that he even prayed for their forgiveness as they sent him to his death. His example compels us to love the most difficult people we know!
I now pray that God would bring someone my way whom I can talk to about Links Players during my team play matches. Sure enough, at dinner after that hard-fought match, I was speaking to my opponent about Links Players, and he revealed to me he was a Christ-follower! Next thing, we started talking about getting other men together to begin a Links Fellowship at his club. And then he said how great it would be to reach out to his partner, who was not a happy person with a lot going on in his life. It hit home then why his partner had acted the way he had in our match that day. In Christ’s love, he was no enemy; he was a man with real need.
That’s what we do as Links Players, reaching the lost and creating a safe environment to discuss eternal issues with even those who may make our lives hard.
—
Dereck Wong
February 14, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.