[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=tiger+woods&iid=8014079″ src=”6/d/0/7/Tiger_Woods_apologizes_a147.JPG?adImageId=11346238&imageId=8014079″ width=”234″ height=”278″ /]Tiger Woods is going to play golf again. According to news reports, the Professional Golfers Association and CBS are giddy over the prospect of his rejoining the PGA tour. It seems that those who stand to profit handsomely from Tiger’s return to the putting green are willing to forget the “sins” of the past and to welcome him back to the center stage of fame he once occupied so well. A few, on the other hand, question whether or not he has been truly rehabilitated, whether or not his religion has provided him some sort of redemption.
One of the most encouraging things I have found in all the Bible is the seemingly endless list of failures God uses for the sake of his works of grace. The pages of Scripture are full of men who “knew better” and yet did not do well.
Take John Mark, for instance. Here was a fellow who was among the first to see Peter miraculously delivered from prison. John Mark was a companion of Paul and Barnabas and commissioned along with them to fulfill the God-given mission to the Gentile nations. John Mark wasn’t able to finish and he left Paul and Barnabas’ service. Paul was so angry with the young man that he refused to work with him for a long while.
God, in his mercy, was far more gracious than Paul. John Mark eventually was restored in Paul’s eyes and beloved by Peter. Some even believe (I happen to be one of them) that the Biblical work entitled “Mark” was penned by this man as given to him by the Apostle Peter.
John Mark gives me hope. Hope that in my own failures God may use me still. Hope that as others fail around me, God will redeem them as well.
I pray that Tiger finds restoration. His chosen path to “enlightenment” doesn’t leave much hope. According to his religion, he has to rebalance his life by his own efforts, righting whatever wrongs he has perpetrated.
For myself, I know this is not possible and so I must rest on the strength and gracious power of One who could and would use a magnificent failure like me.
TheNarrowRoadPursued 
What a wonderful blog, what a wonderful phrase…”magnificent failure.” With one caveat, our failures are only in our flesh and the eyes of the world. In God’s eyes we are the inheritance given by God the Father to His only Son, Jesus Christ. We are more than conquerors, beloved, victorious, and resting in the shadow of Someone Else’s triumph. You blog has prompted many thoughts; among them the wonder of the Scripture when Jesus asks, “Which one of you, if your son asked for bread would give him a stone?” Jesus “asked” the Father for us, and His Father’s gift was you, and me, and us. These are the things that reading your blog inspired me to meditate on. Thank you.