When I was a freshman in high school, I tried out for the tennis team. Competition with other schools hadn’t begun, and team members played matches with each other during practice.
I knew I was a mediocre player, but I didn’t know just how mediocre. I guess I was pretty bad.
After one practice, feeling down in the dumps about losing a match to one of the star athletes of our high school (I didn’t have a chance!), I remember being in the locker room. I was alone in a row of lockers, and I heard a conversation between two boys in the row next to mine. They didn’t know that I was only a few feet away.
One fellow said to another, “Who did you play today?” The other, the star athlete that I truly looked up to, said, “Chet Weld.” Then they each had a good laugh about how easily the superior player had beaten me. Now I felt even worse.
That night as I was lying in bed, I said a prayer: “Lord, help me to be captain of the team by the time I’m a senior.”
Well, I practiced all winter at an indoor backboard downtown in Columbus, Ohio. Also, I shoveled snow at a nearby girl’s school in order to hit against the tennis backboard. I hit and hit and hit. When I could find competition in warmer weather, I played and played and played. I did that throughout the rest of my high school years. Shoveling snow and playing as much as I could.
In my junior year, I beat the regular third man in an intramural match, edging ahead of the other boys my age and earning a varsity position. Also, that year, the team voted on who would be captain of the team for my senior year. I was elected.
In my senior year, I was also “first man” and our record against other teams in the city was 16-0. We were the only undefeated team in the state that year.
I think that faith in God and hard work pay off. I think that God has made ALL of us to be overcomers and that our destiny is to be exceptional in many ways.
I guess you showed them whose the boss ! Yes, we all want instant miracles, but God often uses time to develop and mature our abilities, so that one day we can really ‘shine” .
Michael, In retrospect, God simply answered my prayer. Hard work seems to be what’s necessary for success in any any kind of endeavor. But if we’re working for the wrong things – or putting that ladder up against the wrong wall – our efforts won’t yield much and may even make things worse. “Except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it,” (Psalm 127:1), right?
A good lesson to learn early in life. few there are who find it! dori
Maybe we find more of it every day, as God’s challenges increase. Today we run with the footmen; tomorrow we run with the horses. The challenges keep getting bigger, and our need for Christ does the same.