When will we learn
Well I am writing this at the break of dawn on last day of a great vacation with my family… it’s been a blast. Now one of the things I love to do when on vacation is read. So I have already made my way through a John Grisham book about some football player in Italy and last night was putting the final touches on a book about the life of golfer Payne Stewart.
As you are probably aware - he was killed in 1999 in a bizzare plane crash where everyone died on the airplane but the plane flew on autopilot for another 4 hours until it ran out of fuel and crashed. I still remember the news report and how sad the whole incident seemed.
Well in reading this book about Payne Stewart’s life I was not surprised to read how had grown up in Springfield, Missouri as the son of a champion golfer and how he had excelled in sports.
I was not at all surprised when he also went through all the stages of struggle and growth in trying to make it on the pro golfing tour. Every time you read about a golfer you are reminded of the millions who play - only a couple hundred make the tour.
Well Payne finally made it after four tries. He also went through all the challenges of trying to compete and it took him years to win a tournament and nine years to win a major. But that’s where the story gets interesting because he becomes one of the best in the world even achieving the number one ranking in the world in 1991. Now all through the 90’s he’s at the top and yet something is just not working in his life.
He has fame, money, a great wife and kids - but he is still not happy! Oh, dear friends when will we ever learn? Payne Stewart went through years of this great inner struggle until the year 1998 when through the providence of God and the help of friends like fellow-golfers Paul Azinger and Scott Simpson he finally commits his life to Jesus Christ.
Now most of the book is about his struggles - but it winds up with scores of testimonies about the HUGE personality change everyone sees in his life after he meets the Lord and begins to live for him. And after all isn’t that what it’s all about? So when will we ever learn - only HE can truly satisfy!