“[My people’s] evil deeds have no limit; they do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it, they do not defend the rights of the poor.” (Jeremiah 5:28, NIV)
It was one of those beautifully laughable moments on the golf course.
We had teed off with no warm-up and gladly found the fairway on this tight par-4 with out-of-bounds stakes down both sides. But my effort had been weak, a heeled drive, so I stood 175 yards out, contemplating my approach. I turned to my playing partner and said, “As hard as it is to get a driver in the fairway with no warm-up, it’s a lot easier than having a mid-iron for your first shot of the day with no warm-up.”
The shot I produced was delightful. The ball quite literally never got more than eight inches off the ground. But it was straight, rolling and bounding its way over all that manicured real estate, splitting the greenside bunkers and coming to rest 12 feet from the hole.
When you miss it straight, you can get away with even the most severe mishit. But you also have to keep reminding yourself that what looks good that one time surely won’t look good all day. Sooner or later a serious bit of trouble will gobble up your poorly struck shots and make you pay!
Such a reminder is good for the rest of our life, too, for we are all too accomplished at softening our sin, at letting ourselves off lightly according to our own definition of the severity of our ill actions.
Take evil, for instance. It’s a word we reserve for murder and rape, for despots and pedophiles. Horror movies are loaded with evil. And crack houses. And strip joints.
Evil is everywhere in the world. Just, conveniently, not in me.
And then we read the prophets, discovering there the definition of evil according to God. What’s that he’s saying? That evil looks like indifference? My evil deeds include the efforts I do not make on behalf of those who need my dedicated help. They include my disregard for those in desperate conditions.
If that is evil as God defines it, I’m in trouble. Of course, I’ve always been there, always one whose most beloved idol is me. Yes, I’ve always been there, always utterly desperate in my own right for the forgiveness of God against my plain sin. But that forgiveness has been granted through the blood of Jesus, and now my trouble comes if I do not respond by showing this sort of love—this forgiving, grace-filled, sacrificial love—to those he wants to love through me: those crying out for justice, for a meal, for a night’s stay, for a healing prayer, for a friend.
—
Jeff Hopper
July 19, 2012
Copyright 2012 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.