Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar… Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. (Joel 1:13-14, NIV)
Come Sunday afternoon, someone is going to be celebrating a major championship.
If the season’s trend holds true, it won’t be the man who sleeps on the lead on Saturday night. Less than a third of this year’s winners on the PGA Tour have led after 54 holes and only twice has it been done since mid-May—by Scott Stallings and J.J. Henry, who were holding on at secondary events while Adam Scott and Jim Furyk were frittering away leads at more notable tournaments those same weeks.
Maybe a come-from-behind win makes for a better celebration, in that it’s so unexpected. Maybe it makes for less of a one, because another player has lost so disappointingly. Still, in a profession where trophies are given away every weekend, winning is what you hope for. Winning is cause for celebration!
Of course, even those of us who don’t compete for prizes for our living prefer joy over sorrow. It just feels so much better. And in Scripture, too, we read of the celebrations of God’s people. We know that there is joy in the strength God provides. We come to fellowship with glad hearts.
And yet we also come to fellowship with sincere hearts. We gather with purpose. And behind every purpose is a drumbeat of seriousness. We’re here to get something done, something that matters.
When the prophet Joel called the leaders of God’s people to put on their sackcloth, he was saying to them in the most pictorial words possible, “It’s time to get serious.”
In God’s kingdom, there is an ongoing balance between the sinfulness of man and the salvation of God. We grieve over one, we rejoice in the other.
Sometimes, maybe today, we must step back and take a sober look at the world—both the little world that is made up of our own self and surroundings, and the bigger world that features the words and actions of all mankind. My sin is serious, consequential, grievous to God. So is the sin of the world. And though I would much prefer to just forget all that and sing songs of praise, I am reminded by Scripture’s balance that some days are meant for mourning. Some days I am supposed to recognize the horror of unholiness and cry out to God for his reparations.
What is necessary is not always pleasant, like the cut of the surgeon’s knife. But those who are mature pick the necessity every time, especially when it is the difference between walking boldly with God and walking timidly with him.
—
Jeff Hopper
August 9, 2012
Copyright 2012 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.