This little quip is attributed to Lee Trevino, who rose from poverty to become a hall-of-fame golf pro, winning 29 tournaments from the late 1960s into the 1990s. The quote was in the context of golfers and their golf game, but can apply to any endeavor where we can tend to exaggerate our past accomplishments as we get older. “Back in the day ….” and so on.
Trevino was known for his pithy sayings and for his talking during his rounds of golf, while most golfers in the middle of a tournament prefer to stay focused on their next shot. The story is told about a time in a tournament when Tony Jacklin, paired with Trevino, said "Lee, I don't want to talk today." Trevino responded "I don't want you to talk. I just want you to listen." The likeable golfer was adept at humorously capturing characteristics of our human nature.
Long before Lee Trevino, the apostle Paul had a commentary on his own life. Unlike the golfer, God’s Word indicates that Paul had not come from humble means:
· He was born in Tarsus, a prominent cultural and educational hub, and was fluent in Greek, in addition to Hebrew
· He was a Roman citizen from birth (Acts 22:28), a status that was rare for a Jewish family in the provinces
· He studied in Jerusalem under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), one of the most prominent Pharisaic teachers of the era,
But Paul’s assessment of his life after he came to faith in Jesus was quite the opposite of Lee Trevino’s “the better I used to be” quote. For example, we see Paul’s assessment of himself in 1 Corinthians 15:3-10 when he was writing about his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus: “For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am …”
Further into his ministry, here is how Paul described himself (Ephesians 3:8): “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ …”
Then more toward the end of his ministry, we see how Paul described himself in 1 Timothy 1:15-16: “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am the foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.”
As he got older and more mature, we see that Paul went from “least of the apostles” to “least of all saints” to “foremost of all sinners.” The older he became in the Lord, the more he realized the depth of his sin and the miracle of his salvation by God’s mercy and grace. It was not that he was sinning more; rather, he was becoming increasingly sensitive to his sin and more aware of the magnitude of the “certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us” that he wrote about in Colossians 2:14. This was not Paul wallowing in self-pity; rather, it was a sign of spiritual maturity. He was recognizing more and more what the Lord had rescued him from and that he was completely undeserving of God’s grace and mercy.
So, if your sin troubles you, be thankful. It should bother you more as you mature in the Lord. It is when sin does not bother us that we should be concerned.
Beyond this, we now serve God out of gratitude, not out of fear or obligation. This is an attribute that both Peter and Paul wrote about in their letters, for example:
· In Ephesians 2:8-9 we read that salvation is by grace, not as a result of works, so that we have no right to boast. Ephesians 2:10 is our response to that: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
· Colossians 2:6-7 – “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”
· Colossians 3:18 – “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”
· In 2 Peter 1:2, we see that God “has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” Peter then proceeds to list a set of characteristics believers should have: moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. He concludes by reminding us in verse 9 that “he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.”
The apostle John sums this up perhaps most succinctly: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11).
Thankfully, we don’t have to be good at golf to appreciate Lee Trevino’s insights into human nature. But we are even more thankful for the saints who have written about and demonstrated how we should respond to God’s forgiveness. May the Lord increasingly use us in the lives of others as we gratefully respond to His immeasurable gift.
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With gratitude,
Steve Smith