A Reflection on Walk This Way
by LewisFor two years in the late 1970s I was the tennis pro at a small club in Quincy, Illinois, a town on the Mississippi River not far from St. Louis, Missouri. One of the best tennis players in the world at that time, and certainly one of my favorites, was an Australian named John Newcombe, and when I learned that “Newk” was going to be playing in St. Louis, I arranged to take some of my better students and go see him.
The trip was great fun, the tennis was excellent, and I absorbed it all with excitement and joy. It was late at night when we got home to Quincy, but I was anxious to get back on the court myself, and fairly early the next day I did just that. Now here is the good bit… no one could touch my serve!
Normally my serve was adequate, but after watching John Newcombe serve in the tournament, my serve became instantly (though temporarily) far better than it had ever been. For the rest of that day and even part of the next, I was a reflection of John Newcombe. And I loved it.
In Ephesians 4 Paul writes that we are to help each other grow up into Christ, and then he tells us to “walk no longer as the Gentiles walk.” How can we do that? By setting a John Newcombe kind of example in areas where we are strong, and by watching for John Newcombe examples in areas where we are weaker.
If you want to walk in the way of the Lord, if you truly want to “walk the walk” of a disciple of Christ, then follow Christ’s example. Perhaps if we watch closely enough we will learn to serve like Jesus.
Under the mercy,
Lewis
Tags: John Newcombe, serving, tennis