Living Life by Design

When I was on the professional tennis circuit back in the early 1980’s, I had the privilege of traveling with a group of Australian players. None of them did mornings. Often I would see them with a bleak, pained look in the locker room. However, when I saw them in a match or on the practice court, they were joyful and always took the time to say, “Hello Mate.” Our match times & practice schedules never seemed to match up…they were always different. I would typically start practice or match warmup 30 to 60 minutes after they had started. For the longest time I thought they were genuinely happy to see me and that my presence, we’ll just made a difference.

Some time later I discovered that the large red thermoses that always accompanied them to the courts were not filled with water. They were filled to the brim with beer. Regardless of how tired and grumpy these Australian players were when they arrived, within 30 minutes or so they were all quite joyful. How they could play at such a high level drinking beer is still a mystery to me. 

However dismal or bleak a situation may appear, God always seems to raise up people who are instruments ‘for noble purposes… useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work’ (2 Timothy 2:21).

In 2 Corinthians 7, Titus’ arrival was used by God to bring Paul great comfort and encouragement when Paul was in a state of turmoil, exhaustion, oppression, affliction, dread and fear: ‘But God, who comforts and encourages and refreshes and cheers the depressed and the sinking, comforted and encouraged and refreshed and cheered us by the arrival of Titus’ (v.6).

How can you be “useful” to God today?