Tom Lehman and Forgiveness on Vimeo.
“Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.” (Luke 17:3, ESV)
Tales from the Tour is a Christian outreach ministry started in Arizona by Hugh Illsley. He had been involved with outreach events in his native Canada, but now he was in sunny Scottsdale where a big PGA Tour event was being held every year, and he thought if he could get some tour professionals who were believers to talk about life on tour and their faith, a crowd would come and listen.
How do you learn to be forgiving? I think it is from having been forgiven.After praying about it, he felt like Tom Lehman would be the perfect guy to ask. Hugh lived on a golf course that Tom Lehman had designed, and Tom also lived there. But they had never met. Early the next Saturday morning, Hugh went to the grocery store, and it was there that he ran into Tom Lehman, doing a little shopping. And Tom agreed to help out.
Fast forward to 2017, eleven years later, and once again it seemed right to invite Tom to participate. Once again he said yes. This year he wasn’t playing in the Waste Management Phoenix Open, he was recovering from elbow surgery. It’s been a long time since he was the No. 1-ranked player in the world, but it hasn’t been long since he was a vice captain of the winning Ryder Cup team, and he had a lot to say about that.
But for many who were there, his story of asking for forgiveness from a man he had wronged was a highlight of the evening. You can watch that three-minute story in the video above.
Why did it resonate with so many? Because all of us understand what it is like to need forgiveness. Much of that is needed from God, of course, but not a little of it is needed from our friends, from our family, from our spouses, from our co-workers, and occasionally even from ourselves.
How do you learn to be forgiving? I think it is from having been forgiven. It’s a silly analogy, perhaps, but you learn to give putts because you have been given putts. All of us need a gimme now and then, just as all of us need forgiveness. When you receive it you are grateful, just as Tom was, and it can change a relationship and even change your life.
I don’t know what length of putt Tom Lehman would give you, but I do know he would go to great lengths to forgive you for some wrong you were sorry for. That is because he knows what it means to be forgiven.
If you know that, too, may it help make you a better forgiver.
—
Lewis Greer
March 15, 2017
Copyright 2017 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.