The PGA Tour officially resumed this past weekend as Daniel Berger won the Charles Schwab Challenge in a one-hole playoff against Collin Morikawa at the Colonial Country Club.
The tournament provided drama, excitement, and intrigue with a strong leaderboard and a competitive finish. Berger won his third tournament on the PGA Tour and interestingly enough, all three times (2016, 2017, 2020) came during the same week on the calendar.
Berger finished as the winner after eight different players were on top during the final round. Sunday began with 14 players within three shots of the lead, including seven of the world’s top 20 golfers.
It was a tight tournament with short putts that lipped out, elite golfers like Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas in contention then falling back, and an unusual silence without the galleries cheering.
Daniel Berger embraced the challenge, took advantage of the opportunities, and didn’t allow the few months layoff to slow him down. Actually, before the pandemic, he had three top-ten finishes in his previous three tournaments, so he kept the momentum going.
After the win, he said, “It was a hard-fought battle today. I just kept telling myself, ‘Why not me today?’’’
The final round could have gone a lot of different directions, but Berger was the one that stepped up and emerged from the deep group of golfers in contention.
He could have been intimated by the impressive leaderboard, come up with excuses for why he couldn’t win, or allow the pressure during the final holes to cause him to lose control. Instead, he said, “Why not me today?”
I find that question to be a worthwhile one we can also ask ourselves. As we follow Jesus, there are opportunities to take advantage of, challenges to embrace, and situations that require us to step up.
We have a choice to make: do we allow ourselves to be intimidated, to fall back from contention, make excuses, and allow the pressure to cause us to lose control…or do we say, “Why not me today?”
Why don’t we do what God is calling us to do and rely on His power and strength to help us accomplish something significant and serve in ways that matter?
Every day, people need to hear the gospel, need to be served and comforted, and need someone to stand up for their injustice.
Why don’t we stop looking around for someone else to step in and realize we're in a position to be used by God? We don’t need to expect the “higher-ranked golfers” will get it done, but rather say "Why not me today?"
God is calling us into a life of character and action and He’s the One providing what we need. It’s God’s power within us that enables us to live differently and stand out and step up. He shows us and equips us to live a life marked by faith, love, godliness, patience, and self-control.
Today, with a surrendered heart and a desire to be set apart, let's confidently believe what we're capable of because we know the source of our strength.
"By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the One who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence.
"And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
"In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone” (2 Peter 1:3-7; NLT).
I’m Bryce Johnson and you can UNPACK that!
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help me realize how powerful Your Spirit is within me. I pray I’d rely on Your power and strength to live a godly life with moral excellence and love for everyone. Please empower me to stand out and step up to do Your will. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.Discussion Questions for PACKS:
What do you think of the question “Why not me today?"
What is something you know God has equipped you to do, but you’ve made excuses for not doing it or expected someone else to do it?
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