You couldn't make this stuff up.  Tiger Woods has knee surgery and takes weeks to recover.  His first tournament back is the toughest one on the tour: the U.S. Open.  He needs a birdie on the last hole to force a playoff.  Grimacing with every stroke, often limping on the course, he pulls his drive into a sand trap, pushes his second shot right into the rough, drills his third 10 feet from the hole, and makes the putt.  That would be a corny movie plot if millions of us didn't watch it happen.  Such theatrics are obviously good for Tiger, but today we learn that they're good for the rest of us as well.

This morning's New York Times is reporting that golf is good for you.  A recently released Swedish medical study claims that playing the game can extend your life by five years.  Unfortunately, better golfers seem to live the longest.  If that's the case, I'll be dead by Thursday.  Fortunately, there's a road to true happiness which all of us can take.

We've been studying the Beatitudes of Jesus.  Last week we came to the final one: "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:10).  More Christians died for their faith in the 20^th century than in the previous 19 combined.  But such persecution has not yet reached many of us this morning.  Are you paying a sacrificial price for following Jesus today?  If not, why not?

Last Friday we noted that some of us have withdrawn from the spiritual battle.  We don't know many non-Christians, or interact with the lost world more than we must.  It's hard to see the enemy from the back lines.

Then again, some of us look like the enemy.  Jesus called us the "salt of the earth" and "light of the world" (Matthew 5:13-16).  But if we lose our "saltiness" or hide our candle, the world doesn't feel our salt sting or see our light.  We can be one person at church but another at school, at work, at home, with friends.  A foot in both worlds, church language and world language, church ethics and world ethics, church masks and world masks.  When we look like the enemy, we cost Satan nothing.  He'd rather leave us where we are.

And some of us are not willing to take a risk.  We are engaged regularly with non-believers, and we are willing for them to know of our faith.  But only if they won't be offended by it.  Only if they won't think us strange for our spirituality.  Only if we can still be included in the social group we value or still make the money we want or still achieve the social status to which we aspire.  Some of us don't suffer in the battle because we won't go to the front lines.  Why should we?  Let's continue tomorrow.

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