Fresh Start Devotionals

Gone Fishin’ I quit golfing a few years ago when I discovered a way to go broke without humiliating myself at the same time. Fishing suits me much better. Golfers consider it cheating to improve their lies, we fishermen don’t, any help we can get lying about our catches is fine with us. After all, if no one is going to believe a fisherman, we just as well tell a whopper. Speaking of fish stories, I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes A twenty-four-year-old golfer won his 20th professional tournament and he did it by 15 strokes! Unbelievable. He rewrote the record books. One of the records he broke had stood for around 150 years. Can anybody stop Tiger? He is a man with a passion to win. He has the background, the talent and the determination to make it happen. If there were any doubters left in the crowd, his final putt on the 18th at Pebble silenced them forever. One sign in the gallery said it all, “Thanks Jack, long live Tiger.” When Jack Nicklaus didn’t make the cut after the first round of his 44th and final U.S. Open, he gave his glove and ball to his son Jackie for safe keeping. When asked what he was going to do with his clubs he said, he’d “throw ‘em away.” (Now that’s a sentiment I can relate to. Maybe Jack is interested in doing a little fishing some time.) There doesn’t seem to be any visible jealousy among Tiger’s peers. In the post Open interviews, in unison, and with a sense of awe, they praised him and his accomplishments. The commentators gave the kind of tribute to him that is usually reserved for eulogies. “The only thing that can stop him,” they said, “is if he loses his desire.” They’ve got a point. Without a strong desire, none of us can live up to our potential-not even churches. “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. [5] Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.” Rev. 2:4–5 Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).