CHAMPIONS AIM FOR GREATNESS

"Whoever keeps and teaches [the commandments], he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:19, NASB)

In Ben Hogan's biography James Dodson wrote that the grim but dogged Hogan plodded onward, determined to become the greatest golfer in America.

Gary Player's goal was not fame and wealth. Like his hero, Ben Hogan, he set his sights on winning all four majors, which he did. He sought greatness.

Tiger Wood's ultimate goal from childhood has been to become the greatest player in the world.

When I first read, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," I thought God's Word stood opposite to striving for greatness.

Then one day, I was confessing to my late, dear friend and mentor, Dick Halverson, that I had a problem: "I want to be great." I remember it was hard for me to admit it. Dick, who was 20 years my senior, gave me a quizzical look: "So, what is the problem?"

"Well, I shouldn't be thinking this way."

"Thinking what way?"

I felt my face squint. I was starting to feel like I shouldn't have brought up the subject. "I don't know. I just think I should be humble and I know I'm not. Truth is, I'd like to be well-known and thought of as a great person."

"Jesus never taught that you couldn't be great," he said.

My ears opened.

"He told us 'be great,'" he said, "and the process for getting there."

That brief conversation had a major impact upon me. The following years, I started seeing things in Scripture I had never seen before, such as, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven"(Matthew 18:3, 4, NASB). Isn't it interesting that Jesus lifted up the little child as personifying the traits of greatness?

Or consider Jesus' commendation of John the Baptist: "...there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist: Yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (Matthew 11:11, NASB). Or, "Let him who is greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as the servant … I am among you as one who serves" (Luke 22:26, 27, NASB).

Should we not, like the great champions of golf, set our sights on the greatness that Jesus taught and modeled?

What one thing can I do today to serve as Jesus served?

--

Jim Hiskey

October 17, 2007

Copyright 2007 Links Players International

The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.