Stewartstown Baptist Church

What a Difference a Week Makes

I don’t want to go completely over the Tiger Woods drama, because I doubt there’s anything I could say that would be new. I remember at my Mom’s on Thanksgiving Day thinking that it was odd how much attention his fender bender was receiving. As more and more details leak out, it just gets worse and worse. But while I was listening to the radio recently, I heard the radio host talk about how shocking this is because Tiger always came off as a likeable, even-tempered, and smart guy. I don’t know what Tiger they’re talking about, because I watched him play golf. It doesn’t take a professional lip reader to see what he says on a bad shot. Or to see his glares at photographers. My first pastor saw him at the Master’s in 2002 and came away so concerned about Tiger that since he couldn’t get close to him, Bro. Ralph sent him a personal letter and a Bible to tell him about the change Jesus could make in his life.

Tiger was like the circus performer spinning plates. He was the clean cut guy doing commercials, putting his face on video games, and basically making a lot of money off his image. Now, you may never see another Tiger Woods commercial again. You may never even see him play golf again. His life is completely in a shambles, as is that of his wife and two young children. What should we take away from this as Christians? Numbers 32 includes a speech that Moses made to some of people of Israel. They were entering the promised land and preparing to take it over. Instead, you had some people who decided that they liked the place they were in and they wanted to stay. Moses gave them permission to live there AFTER they helped Israel conquer Canaan. And in Numbers 32:23, Moses says, “But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the LORD; and be sure your sin will find you out.” They couldn’t slink out of the battle and go home without facing repercussions. We cannot hide sin, nor should we. When sin becomes known to us, our next step should be figuring out how to get rid of it. What needs cut out of our lives? Where do we need to stop going? Who do we need to stop hanging around? Our sin will find us out. God already knows it, but if it has to be exposed to the world to get your attention, He’ll do it. You may have all your plates in the air today, but what about next week?