Making a Stand

Tuesday, 17th April 2007

Those of who out there who are keen golfers would have been aware that a relative rookie by the name of Zach Johnson recently won the Masters.

The commentator had said that Tiger Woods had never lost an event when he was in the final flight. Well, he finally did... to Zach.

In fact, Zach was in the 3rd from last flight.

But what was more relevant was the victory speech that Zach made before he received the "green jacket" from Phil Mickelson, last year's winner. He remained humble throughout and acknowledged and gave glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. He made a stand for Jesus.




This following is extracted from a write-up on him, found on Links Players' website.

Johnson's wife, Kim, had manufactured a personal ball mark for him. On one
side she inscribed the words, "Trust your line," accompanied by the notation
Proverbs 3:5,6, which says: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not
on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make
your paths straight." Johnson would set that side up on the putting green and
recite the proverbial words to himself.

The reverse side of the homemade mark helped shape Johnson's mindset elsewhere on the course. The inscription was, "One shot at a time," and the Scripture passage was Matthew 6:33-34: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you. Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough worry of its own."

"Those verses kind of kept me at ease," Johnson says. "I don't know if I was communicating with God at the time I was playing, but I felt like I was closer with Him at the time than with anybody else."

Now, here is a concrete example of a believer being a witness to our Lord where he has been placed. The sports arena, especially, are full of pre-believers who believe and glory in their own achievements, than there are believers who attribute their all to the Lord.

I am blessed to be in an environment where nearly 50% of my department colleagues are fellow believers. Hence, I really take my hat off to those whom the Lord has placed where the environment is not as "Christian-friendly", such as politics, media and the arts.

May the LORD continue to raise up more workers like Zach, because the harvest is plentiful and the labourers are few.

Shalom
Malcolm