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Scottie Scheffler before winning The Open: “This is not a fulfilling life” · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Greetings, and welcome to the July twenty first twenty twenty five edition of Denison forums daily article podcast.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Chris Elkins, narrating today's daily article written by cultural pastor and theologian Dr. Jim Denison.
• 0:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: to no one's surprise, Scotty Schiffler won the Open Championship yesterday in convincing fashion.
• 0:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: His victory was so dominant that, according to CNN, it left his rivals awestruck.
• 0:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it's what happened before the tournament in Northern Ireland began that made global headlines.
• 0:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Often called the British Open, it's the oldest golf tournament in the world.
• 0:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Its winner is crowned champion golfer of the year, a title dating to the first open in a teen sixty.
• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have watched it each year for many years.
• 0:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is the first year I can remember when news preceding the tournament overshadowed the tournament itself.
• 0:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: But that's what happened last Tuesday.
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Scotty Schiffler
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: The world's number one golfer has won more tournaments and majors than anyone over the last three years.
• 1:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nonetheless, in what the Associated Press called, quote, an amazing soliloquy, Sheffler said, this is not a fulfilling life.
• 1:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: but it's not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: He added, I love the challenge, I love being able to play this game for a living.
• 1:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's one of the greatest joys of my life, but does it feel the deepest wants and desires of my heart?
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely not.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then Chefler asks, why do I want to win the open championship so badly?
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, because if I win, it's going to be an awesome two minutes.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: then we're going to get to the next week."
• 1:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: He often says golf doesn't define him as a person.
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, he said if the sport ever affected his life at home, quote, that's going to be the last day that I play out there for a living in quote.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Schiffler's statements regarding the ultimate value of the game he plays garnered national coverage and article in the New York Times even called him Nialist Scotty.
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: A Nialist believes that life has no purpose or meaning.
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why would someone call him that?
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: And why is the question relevant for you and me today?
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: The AP article asks rhetorically.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: So where does fulfillment come from if it's not winning the writer then answers?
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sheffler is grounded in his faith in a simple family life with a wife he has been with since high school, a fifteen month old son, three sisters and friends that are not part of the tour community.
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote,
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have followed Sheffler's golf career over the years with great interest in part because he and our sons graduated from the same high school in Dallas.
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: But primarily because I am deeply impressed with the way his faith influences his life.
• 3:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: He met his caddy, Ted Scott, at a Bible study.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Last December, he co-hosted an annual retreat for members of the college golf fellowship, a faith-based ministry.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Before winning the master's last year, he stated, it doesn't matter if I win this tournament or lose this tournament, my identity is secure forever.
• 3:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Scottie's sense of self is clear, quote, I believe in Jesus, ultimately, I think that's what defines me the most in quote.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: But such faith is not what defines achievement in our secularized culture.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: To deny the ultimate significance of temporal success is nihilism for those who measure success only in this way.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: A person who values his faith and family above his golf career is therefore a nihilist.
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: What does this say about our culture?
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: In a sense, the times writer is correct.
• 3:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those who make Jesus their king should be nihilist with regard to anything valued more highly than their Lord.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was clear in Matthew six verse twenty four.
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: No one can serve two masters.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: For either he will hate the one and love the other.
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: You cannot serve God and money.
• 4:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: As Osginus noted, either we serve God and use money, or we serve money and use God.
• 4:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's the paradox.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: When we use temporal things to serve God, temporal things take on eternal significance and acquire a joy and purpose they could never possess otherwise.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those who play golf for God's glory find that they have God for a partner.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: He guides and encourages them as they play and shares their successes and failures as if they were his own.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: God endows their temporal work with the joy of the Lord and the power of the Spirit.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: This does not guarantee that they'll become the best golfer in the world like Scotty Sheffler.
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it does mean that they will become the best versions of themselves, and every day they spend in this world playing seeds of significance in the world to come.
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: To be a nihilist like Scotty Schefler, let's make his world view our own.
• 5:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Schefler testifies, I've been called to come out here, do my best to compete, and glorify God.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's pretty much it, in quote.
• 5:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sheffler knows the place God has assigned him when he says, I've been called to come out here.
• 5:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like Scotty, you and I have a kingdom assignment uniquely suited to our spiritual gifts, life experience, and personal capacities.
• 5:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Gotti Schiffler knows the power by which to be effective when he says, do my best to compete.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: As sociologist James Davison Hunter has shown, serving with excellence is the key to cultural impact.
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: And, Schiffler knows the purpose of his work when he states, and glorify God.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: There is room for only one person on the throne in every human heart.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: We must choose each day to dethrone ourselves and from Ephesians five eighteen submit our lives to God's Spirit and quoting Psalm twenty nine verse two, ascribe to the Lord the glory do His name.
• 6:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: If living this way is pretty much it, everything else becomes nothing else.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: The New York Times article calling Sheffler Nile Scotty makes my point.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: The writer of the article later concludes, quote, the emptiness Sheffler feels between who he is and the game he plays does, in fact, have a place in his faith.
• 6:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Take a look at Ecclesiastes.
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: or just leave it to an Irish poet to some things up.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: SWB Yates put it, where there is nothing there is God in quote.
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Scotty Schiffler would agree.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Would you?