CHAMPIONS MUST BE AT PEACE WITH THEMSELVES

“Let us pursue the things that make for peace….” (Romans 14:19, NASB)

Journey with me to Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is a hot June day, 1958.

Tommy Bolt—Thunderbolt, as he was sometimes called—is playing a practice round at the U.S. Open.

His peers and the media agree he’s a favorite. His shot-making skills are not inferior to Hogan or Snead or the new-coming stars, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer. But they say he’ll never win a big one like the Open because he can’t control his temper.

He isn’t much concerned about the press on this sweltering, 95 degree day. He’s the best dressed man in golf, decked in tailor-made slacks, no back pockets, shirt pressed. Everything he wears is wrinkle-free. He feels confident.

A gentle breeze falls on his face as he walks down off the teebox of the first hole and heads downhill on the tight, 30 yard-wide fairway. It’s a rare moment, like few he has ever had. The Bermuda grass feels soft to his feet.

 “I don’t have one problem with anyone in the world,” he says to himself. Though he is already sweating by the time he gets to his ball, which is square in the middle of the fairway, he’s never felt better.

For two reasons. Earlier this year, he’d received a letter from a fan from Australia, with a written prayer. A prayer for serenity. A prayer that had changed about everything in his life. Bolt had memorized it and was praying it every time he thought of it, which was like that moment. He pulled an iron out of his bag: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”

And second reason. He felt at peace with the world.

That peace stayed with him all day and the four rounds of the tournament. Without prayer, without being at peace with the world and everyone in it, he thought, I’d never have won.

Tommy Bolt told me this story when I had the good fortune of being in his Florida home 10 years ago. He’d just begun to look at Jesus Christ in 1958. But when I met with him, he had come into the “peace that passes all understanding” that follows faith in Jesus Christ.

I like this story because it reveals what peace can do in a person’s life.

Before I began writing this morning, I opened my Bible to Romans 14. Two verses jumped out at me: “The kingdom of God is…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (v. 17) and “Pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another” (v. 19). I was struck by the word “pursue.”

Pursue peace.

But how?

As I meditated upon this question, a man’s face came to mind—a friend. I was reminded of the time when I was unreconciled with him. I had lost the peace of God. In fact, I was in anguish about our relationship.

By the grace of God I’ve been reconciled with my friend. It did not come easy. And not until I asked myself a question to which I knew the answer—is there any problem or relationship worth giving up the peace of God?—and took the initiative.

Is there anyone you are not reconciled with today?

Is there anything you can do to “pursue the things which make for peace”?

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Jim Hiskey

February 12, 2007

Copyright 2007 Links Players International

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