Thursday, December 3, 2009

Get a Life....a Prayer Life!

I've got one more post about this Tiger Woods fiasco.  I promise that after this I'm going to take my own advice and 'leave Tiger Woods alone!'   He just opened a door so widely in one of his public statements that I cannot let it go.

Tiger said, "Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn't have to mean public confessions."  I like this statement very much.  Yet, at the same time I'm reminded of that powerful scene from the movie, The Godfather Part III where Michael Corleone confesses his many sins before the preist after almost going into a diabetic coma.  It was as though his confessions helped him deal with his many sins so that his inner turmoil would not eat him alive.

Press releases and public confessions aren't really necessary, it's true Mr. Woods.  But here is one of the chief reasons why an active prayer life between us and God is necessary, helpful and something to treasure.

God forgives. I also hope that forgiveness flows through families. I hope that ongoing grudges and claims made by one family member to another that they will 'never forgive' in this situation or that situation will not be the chief end of any issue.

One of the great truths of folks of faith and good will is that we all know that one day we all will stand in need of forgiveness for something. An active prayer life is an outstanding place to converse with God about our personal sins, our shortcomings and the times we miss the mark.

On the internet there is a place where you can get some answers to questions you might have about prayer.  Its:  www.allaboutprayer.org   Visit the site for answers to questions you might have about daily personal prayer, family prayer and gaining greater intimacy with God.  I'd love to know if you've started or re-started your prayer life recently.  Leave me a comment and may your active prayer life bless you!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

James;

I truly believe that from God’s perspective (I can only guess, I don’t really know ;-) what goes for the rest of us goes for Tiger Woods. We should never forget that through Grace and prayer we can all be forgiven. Just as important, we should remember that grace and forgiveness are ours to employ as well and should be rendered to our families and those others in our lives who have “fallen short.”

Again I don’t know for sure, but I really don’t believe that God cares about our golf handicap or that we’ve surpassed the billion dollar mark in terms of net worth, or any of the circumstances of our lives, for that matter. Just as we are all born naked and leave this life naked (in the spiritual sense) we are all naked of our material possessions when coming face to face with God. This is not so with humankind (of this I am sure). For someone of Tiger Woods’ stature, redemption must be sought on many different levels. Beyond seeking God’s grace, he must come face to face with his wife, who stands in a growing line of other humiliated women who have learned simultaneously with the rest of the planet of her husband’s indiscretions (ah, the marvels of internet and 24/7 news broadcasts). And while God does not make judgments about whether to forgive or not based on how public the sin, I dare say that Mrs. Elin Woods is probably inclined to weight her forgiveness accordingly, if inclined to forgive at all. Then there’s the public--a mixture of the starstruck idol worshippers who believe that fame and a purchased image makes one infallible. And there are the witch hunters who love a moment like this to help validate their own actions and/or to feel better about their own lives. Not too far down on the totem pole are the money people, the ones who sit behind the desks in the corner offices of Nike, Buick, AT&T, etc. and decide on rendering forgiveness based on the bottom line. There are some segments of the media, too, who may hope for a lack of forgiveness in order to draw out the drama several more days in the name of ratings.

I don’t know anything about the depth or practices of Woods’ spiritual life, but I think in light of these recent circumstances it would be of great necessity to know that God forgives. Period. I would tend to think that in the midst of the human circus that would be a very comforting notion indeed.

Anne Lyken-Garner said...

A very encouraging post. I particularly liked the point about us all needing forgiveness at one point or another. We always need to remember that when we're busy getting angry at other people who offend us.

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