Alright, I’m a pretty big sports fan. If there is a competition involved I will either be watching or trying it out. So this was a fun week for me, NCAA basketball championship, baseball season kicking off, and the Masters. Even if your not a sports fan there has to be some part of you that tunes in just out of curiosity! It even got to the point that our families Sunday afternoon Easter Egg Hunt was delayed due to a 2 hole play-off in the Masters, eventually won by Bubba Watson.

Bubba, in the last year, has become one of my favorite athletes on the planet and it has nothing to do with his golf game. Don’t get me wrong, his golf game is insane! He makes so many aggressive decisions, then pulls them off, that the golf world has gone from calling him crazy to “creative.” He hits a ball so far that if he played from any mere mortal’s tees he couldn’t take his driver out of the bag! So far that Ping created a campaign for their drivers using the tagline, “Don’t just hit it long, hit it Bubba long!” Yet, the true reason behind him becoming one of my favorites is his twitter account.

I started following Bubba on twitter a while back and was amazed at how outspoken he was about his faith in Christ. Bubba will tweet scripture almost daily. Sunday morning of the Masters Bubba was in the second to last group easily within striking distance to win his first major and he tweeted “1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

He followed that up with “Happy Easter everyone!” with the hashtag #JesusHasRisen

His first tweet ever as the Masters Champion was “To God Be the Glory!!”

Then I started thinking… over the last few months the biggest stories in sports have been Tim Tebow, Jeremy Lin and his “Linsanity”, and now Bubba Watson. Tebow was a highly recruited high school athlete, who went on to win 2 National Championships and a Hiesman Trophy. Lin was a California kid who wanted to go to Stanford and didn’t make it so he had to go play basketball at Harvard. Got cut twice in the NBA then sent to the developmental league until injuries to players in front of him gave his coach no other options but to play him. Watson is a southern kid who has never once taken a golf lesson. So many different backgrounds and stories leading up to their fame yet one glaring similarity… an outspoken and unashamed faith in Jesus Christ.

So I’ve come to this conclusion: The key to success in life is dedication to Jesus Christ.

Now hear me in this, each one of these guys have had hiccups in their life. It hasn’t been all peaches and roses on the journey, and God never promises that. Bubba and his wife have struggled through the adoption process and just recently received their new baby son. Lin’s plan for his life was Stanford, God’s wasn’t. Tebow continues to hear most of the sports world say he isn’t a quarterback at the NFL level. But when no one else can explain their success, each one of them would say the exact same thing… “To God Be the Glory!!!”

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

The key to success is to stick to His plan for your life.