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Mastering our trade.
Phil 3:12. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Title: ‘I had a dream, actually I had a nightmare.’
There is a Television Ad by Gary Player, a long time professional golfer I have seen since I was a kid, who ended the Ad which was promoting a golf museum, with ‘for the love of golf’.
I always loved watching Gary play golf on TV, or any golf on TV, or actually playing it myself for 50 years. A great hobby, a great atmosphere, especially with a couple of friends, on a warm afternoon, walking the course, with a little friendly competition, and an occasional witness for the One who really invented the game.
But I had a nightmare about golf last night after watching the Waste Management Open golf tournament, this year’s 2015 edition.”
This tournament is one of the first tournaments of the year. It is like most tournaments except for the 16th hole.
Spectators, about 10,000, are packed into a stadium surrounding the hole. It has a football like atmosphere and everyone is allowed to drink alcoholic beverages, throw things, boo players, talk trash, and just make a lot of noise. Contrast this with Jesus feeding the 4000+ or 5000+ hungry people.
The actual ‘waste management’ part is maintaining quiet during the actual golf shot execution, the cleanup afterwards, the safety of spectators on their way home, and of course the future of golf, where this gets out of control.
Anyway, there were advertisements for the 2015 ‘Masters Golf Tournament’ to be held on the ‘hallowed ground’ at Augusta National, in Georgia on April 10-14, 2015. No, Moses was not there. Neither is Gary McCord. Glad that Jim Nance made the cut.
This tournament has always been the most disciplined, the most revered, the most looked forward to, and a symbol of accumulating drama for 4 days until Sunday afternoon when the winner is crowned as the one of the best, and wins the prize, the Green Jacket. They call it coveted.
Sounds almost idolatrous, well... We can call it striving for excellence in a world that is quickly forgetting the meaning of excellence. We might even call it obeying the first Genesis command from God for man to ‘subdue the earth’.
Like good golf course management, it is providing a healthy environment for all the participants while still glorifying God and honoring the Savior while we live the life God has given us. I know, close the course Sunday Morning.
Now for my nightmare, after Amen Corner of all places (the beginning of the back nine at Augusta):
I was playing in the Masters, and on Sunday afternoon, 4 shots behind after 9 (whew), and on the 18th hole, after my second shot which had landed one foot from the hole, I was tied for the lead, and a ‘kick in birdie as they say’, and Victory. Yeah!
As I was approaching the green, tipping my hat to the cheering masses, David Feherty, an on course announcer for CBS Sports, who has this appearance of the Devil himself with a large black and gray goatee, comes running up to me.
He tells me ‘you did great, but since this only a practice round, how do you feel about tomorrow when the real tournament starts’?
I was speechless, confused, and so angry that I actually did kick the ball into the hole, was assessed a penalty for an illegal shot, and came in second.
David Feherty, with that devilish grin, came running up to me and said ‘April Fools, this really was the final round of the Masters, and you lost the Green Jacket!’
Fortunately, I woke up at that point, screaming, but soon realized that ‘it was just a nightmare’.
But as I think about it, God speaks to us not only in His Word, but in circumstances, or events, or even in nightmares.
This existence is real-time, this is not practice, and we should do all we can to be ‘worthy the prize’ that Paul talked about. Doing our best to glorify God, honor the Savior, and heed the Spirits call to subdue the earth by taking the Gospel to all parts of the globe, and even to the golf course.
Ps. I just heard that David Feherty was recently given a lesson in course management by a fellow golfer: don’t drink and drive. Way to go guys. And of course I also just heard that David left CBS for NBC golf. I guess I can add David’s name to the list of people who are not there, at the Masters. Good luck David. Thanks for the memories and for being in my nightmare.
Ps 2. I just watched the 2016 edition of Waste Management. Seems like CBS dropped the tournament for the Super Bowl (#50, yipes another article and another nightmare), and NBC picked it up. Guess who was there? David Feherty. He must have had a premonition or he likes the 16th hole.
Ps 3. Bernhard Langer in the 1993 Masters, during the Green Jacket presentation, said “what a day to win a tournament, on the day my Savior was raised from the dead”. Throw another log in the Butler Cabin Fireplace. On May 28, 2017, after winning his 7th senior Majors Tournament, during the postgame interview, on national TV again, read from Scripture, and said, “these wins are nothing like knowing my Savior.” What a testimony.
Ps 4. About Ps 3: Tried to find a reference to the 1993 interview. Only found:
Easter Sunday is special for Bernhard Langer.
Langer won the Masters Tournament in 1985 and 1993, and the latter victory had even more meaning for him by falling on Easter Sunday.
Langer wasn’t a Christian when he won for the first time at Augusta National Golf Club, and he told a story about what he said in the post-round interview.
“I was asked did you ever look at a leaderboard,” Langer said. “I said no I didn’t, but when I walked (from No. 9 green to No. 10 tee) I looked at the board real quick and said, ‘Jesus Christ, I can’t believe I’m four shots behind Curtis Strange.’
“This was on national TV, going to hundreds of millions of homes. So when I got home two weeks later I had stacks of mail saying who are you to swear on national television. But I wasn’t a believer at the time, and to me it was an expression, nothing more or nothing less.”
A week after his first Masters win, Langer went to Hilton Head Island, S.C., to play in the Heritage. While there, he attended the PGA Tour’s weekly Bible study session. A few days later, Langer won the Heritage for his second PGA Tour victory, and he soon became a Christian.
His 1993 Masters interview didn’t draw any complaints.
“They asked me which victory is more important or more meaningful,” Langer said. “I said this one means more to me because it’s Easter Sunday and we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. I might be the only one to mention Jesus Christ in the post-win interview on national TV.”
Ps 5. Sadly on 7/2/17 David Feherty’s son died from a drug overdose, on his 29th birthday. Not sure of David’s spiritual status, but how many Christians experience a similar kind of tragedy. I know, part of life, but would a saner culture make a difference?
Heroes of Faith:
http://historyreally.org/pitcairn.html
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After their own kinds.
Much too often we have trouble remembering Adam and Eve as living in a real place and in a real time. Maybe it is because we live in a world that is desperately searching for something new and good, but sadly discover what King Solomon discovered years ago: ‘there is nothing new under the sun’.
Disfunctional’ly, we just cannot imagine a time when everything was brand new and very, very good. But, should we consider the possibility and a solution? After all, we are all related to Adam and Eve and share a commonality, like, we all are here because of a distant cousin. In keeping with this notion, I would like to present a hypothetical story that might help bring the beginnings into the present.
“Quality Time Around the Dinner Table”
After the fall, and after being expelled from the Garden of Eden, and sometime after the birth of Adam’s and Eve’s 2 sons Cain and Abel, I could just picture the family sitting down to dinner after a sweaty days work among the thorns and thistles.
After the blessing said by Adam, and all said Amen, Abel starts the conversation by saying “Wow, those animals sure were cantankerous today. For some reason they were less obedient than at other times; especially that Zonkey!” “All look puzzled.”
Then Cain jumps in and says “That’s nothing, you should have seen all the weeds growing in my vegetables. Maybe we could learn to appreciate a ‘weed salad’.” Of course all laugh and the meal continues. Eve believes she may be pregnant again, and is politely anticipating more ‘joys’ and more ‘pains’. And Adam just sighs, remembering what it was like before they found a snake in the Garden, the garden that God had made.
But Cain continually laments the harshness of the family’s situation. Abel agrees, “Yea Mom and Dad, if God loves us so much why are things so hard”? Adam and Eve just look at each other and both think, the day has finally come to speak of such things.
Adam recounts the days of bliss in the Garden. And Eve talks about how they were both tricked by a talking ‘snake like thing’ into eating of the forbidden fruit and gaining the thing called the ‘knowledge of good and evil’. “So much for bliss” says Adam. “We had it really swell, but the price of disobedience is what we deserved.” “And here we are, making the best of things.”
Then Abel says “Gee, you guys really messed up huh?” “Do you think if we really cleaned up our act God would let us back into the Garden?” Adam replies “I did hear God tell the snake that one of our offspring would step on his head.” “That may mean that the snake will be dealt with before we could return to that place. But we will just have to be patient and wait”. And Eve starts to sing something like “trust and obey”. And Abel says “Mom you sure sound nice and those words are really nice too”. “Can we call that a ‘praise hymn’?”
And of course Cain starts to moan “Hey, that’s not fair”. “Why should we have to wait? Why can’t God just trust us to do better?” And Cain just could not control his anger. “Even if God tells me himself to be patient, I just will not wait.” “I can fix things, and I will make a new garden, and call it something like ‘Utopia’.” And do not get in my way!
Adam and Eve just look at each other in dismay, and think, well one seems to understand. Maybe Cain will come around, and maybe Abel or one of the new offspring will be the one to deliver us from that awesome and evil Serpent. But He would have to be so Special and so Perfectly Able!
And then Adam, trying to lighten the conversation says to Eve, “What’s for dessert?” And all reply, “What is dessert?” Eve thinks to herself, “Why must I come up with something new, again?”
Well, back to the future. Hopefully remembering the beginnings will help us to remember the end of it all, and the new beginnings that are still yet ahead. Maybe, it is just as simple as ‘trust and obey’, and don’t forget the One who made it all. And the one called Jesus of Nazareth, who will make all things new again and very, very good again, forever.