Scottie Scheffler seems a decent and nice man as you will ever find....from what I have read since the Masters. Before that I didn't even know who he was. The article that I read this morning states that after the Masters win he said that golf is the fourth most important thing in his life.
I alluded to Scottie Scheffler in a post four days ago titled....We Knew That Many Would Be Deceived....But We Had No Idea That We Would Be Among Those Deceived....in this sentence...."We separated from progressivism and wokism but not from the world....and we gathered for ourselves idols which we labelled blessings from God....sports for one. So a professional says that Christ is most important to him....and that trump's all of God's Word about coming out of the world."
So we all know the story about how he was arrested while trying to pull into the golf club where one of the Majors....the PGA Championship was being played....and he after one round was right up there in the hunt. Not only was that incredible....that he was actually arrested....abut I read this morning that after being released he shot a 65. How is that possible....he is shaken to the core....I would be the same way....and he shoots a better round than he did the day before. I probably wouldn't be able to hit a straight shot. I know that because I couldn't hit a straight shot....if I golfed that is....because I could never hit a straight shot.
So the next thing was how would he react in the press to what happened? Would He be defensive? He remained as classy as he apparently is....and lauded the police who are there to protect us. So as I thought about this yesterday....with my mind pondering things as it always does....I formulated something that in my imagination he should say.....knowing full well that this would never happen. I want to get this down now in this post before I forget the details.
This is what my mind came up with. Scottie Scheffler stands before the press after being released....and before starting his second round....and says something like this....
"Thank you all for coming at such quick notice. As you know I made some mistakes driving today....and wound up being arrested. As I was sitting in that jail cell contemplating what had happened.....not only to me but more importantly to the man who earlier had lost his life in that accident....whose family is now grieving....I came to some conclusions. I am in perfect peace about this. I can surely see God's hand in this. I talked this all over with my wife. I am a golfer who currently is ranked number one in the world....with seemingly a great career ahead of me....but God is dealing with me....and I plan on playing my best over the next few days....and then retiring completely from golf. I don't need the money and I am leary and weary of the fame. I look around this world and can hardly comprehend the seriousness of the situation. For me....I put no burden on anyone else....I cannot continue to play a game while war and everything else that God's Word tells us is coming....and that it seems that my Lord and my Savior is very near in His return. Thank you all again!"
OK....pretty crazy stuff right? I think that the general response to someone reading this might be that Scottie Scheffler was able to be calm and go out and shoot a 65 because God was with him. It was because of his faith in Christ! This will be a great witness!
B. J. Thomas famously became born again and his 1976 album....Home Where I Belong....and was a big part of 1976 being called....The Year Of The Evangelical. I'm sure that his witness had an effect on me six years later....as I am sure that the witness of Scottie Scheffler will have an affect on some. Every man has to do what he has to do. I would point you to another celebrity also....one of the greatest basketball players of all time....Pete Maravich....who also became born again. I can't give the source of this quote....in fact I can't remember it word for word....but it had a big enough impression on me that I can relate the jest of what Pete Maravich said....it went something like this...."I wish that all the time I had played basketball....I had spent in God's Word."
Come on Pete....you would have been a nobody without basketball....and you wouldn't have affected Special Dog? Well that would be true....but what we have forgotten today is that our sport fame or our music fame or any fame of success....gets in the way of the glory of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:22....ESV...."To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some." He then a few verses later went on to write..."Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable."
You have to keep reading here for Paul said that their 'fathers'...."all ate the same spiritual food"...."all drank the same spiritual drink"....but God was not pleased with most of them....and that these things were examples to us....warnings on idolatries. The temptation is surely there that we can partake of things that may even be idolatry....as long as we do it with a Christian witness. This may at times be a fine line....but it is still a line.
History gives us this....surely you have heard of it....a Roman envoy was sent with a few men....but the power of the name of Rome....to stop the Seleucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes from attacking Ptolemaic Egypt. There was hesitation. The envoy drew a circle around the Syrian and told him....make your decision before you leave this circle! Friends....before you enter into the world....make your decision....will it be a half-hearted decision.... will you offer to keep the advice in mind....or will it always be Christ....over everything....with no playing around with idolatries?
One-hundred years ago....Eric Liddell made that decision before leaving the circle. He would not run in the Paris Olympics on the Lord's Day. This was a better witness than running the 100 meters....winning....and then giving the glory to God! Our denomination's monthly magazine just this month had a photo Of Liddell winning the gold in 1924. He died in a Japanese concentration camp just before the war ended....but his name lives on a hundred years later....where if he had run and won the 100 on the Lord's Day we would never have heard his name!
