Tiger Woods is one of the very few athletes in the world who has the ability to create an immense amount of buzz, intrigue, and attention. He's had quite the crazy journey of being the top golfer and dominating the field to then becoming a huge letdown on and off the course.
Tiger's bad decisions, debilitating injuries, and multiple missed cuts have made it seem as though he'd never make it back to the top of the leaderboard...until yesterday.
For 38 minutes he held the lead at the Open Championship at Carnoustie. Although he was unable to hang on (he double bogeyed the 11th hole and bogeyed the 12th hole), he ended up finishing tied for sixth.
Tiger's remarkable resurgence affects golf ratings in a profound way with large audiences tuning in to watch him play - those rooting for him and those rooting against him.
There's no denying that sports fans, not just golf fans, want to watch what Tiger can do on the course, especially when he's in contention. Interestingly, many fans who once disliked Tiger during his dominant run years ago are now actually wanting to see him win.
Fans in all sports want to root for the comeback of athletes. With so many doubters and critics never imagining Tiger would be back in a position to win, he's being viewed as an underdog.
An older golfer recovering from surgeries whose last major win took place in 2008, some sports fans are rooting for him like they never have before. Even those who thought they could never pull for him, are coming around.
In thinking about the fans who once wrote Tiger off, but are now changing their view on this new version of him, we can learn an important lesson about altered perspectives in other areas of our lives.
As followers of Jesus, we are continually being transformed by His magnificent power. When we open our hearts and minds to become more like Him, the things we used to root against are now being cheered for like surrender, humility, worship, accountability, and forgiveness.
Instead of rooting against certain people or wrongly judging them as we did in our former way of life, God’s work in us causes us to view others with love, patience, and grace.
One of the Bible's more powerful and dramatic life changes happened to Saul when he became the apostle Paul. He “rooted” against Jesus followers, but then became one himself and was mightily used by God in this new version.
The account is found in Acts 9:20-22 (NLT): "And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, 'He is indeed the Son of God!'
"All who heard him were amazed. 'Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?' they asked. 'And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?
"Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.”
“Isn’t this the same man who...” can be used for any of us who used to think and live one way before Jesus got a hold of our hearts.
Today, let’s be encouraged that what we used to “cheer for” or what we used to “root against” is viewed through a new lens when we fully surrender our lives to Jesus.
I’m Bryce Johnson and you can unpack that!
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, please continue to transform me from who I used to be. I know I’m not the same and I pray I would embrace the life You want me to live. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.
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