"Football is not a matter of life and death, it is more important than that."
Bernhard Langer
It was wonderful to see Bernhard Langer roll back the years last week [July 2007] in the Crowne Plaza Golf tournament last week. Bernhard, now 49, had not won in America since 1993. He finished the tournament joint first only to lose the play-off to Rori Sabatini.
After winning the US Masters in 1985 Bernhard Langer had made it in golf. He had fulfilled his ambitions and was world Number 1. "I had all the money I needed and a beautiful young wife. I had everything! And yet it wasn't enough. It was like, "Well, where do we go now? It wasn't what I thought it would be and there was still something missing, a feeling of emptiness. There must be more to life than this.
An invitation to a Bible Study on the golf tour caused him to investigate Christianity.
"I got my own Bible and read sections of it. After a period of time I began to realise that I had to make a choice. As I understood that God loved me so much that he sent his only Son to die for my sins, it was natural for me to ask the Lord into my life. Basically I just had to trust in him to forgive my sins. I had to make him the number one priority in my life, do everything to please him and not try to do it all myself.
"When I realised that Jesus had died on the cross for my sins, for everybody's sins and I had to give over my life to him, I just recognised that this is the most important step or most important decision that I would ever have to take".
22 years on he is still doing the business on the golf course and following Christ. Let's thank God for people like Bernhard.
Stuart
Stuart Weir