'Progression Through The Years'

I was sat watching the Wimbledon tennis match between Ivan Ljubicic and the British number one, favoured by London at least to win the 2011 Wimbledon games, if he can tower pass Nadal and Federrer; Andy Murray.  As I watched the matched, it took me back to the days when Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi would play.  The quality of the game was so high, the returns were breath-taking and I remember watching Andre Agassi, as the greatest returner, as it was hard to get balls pass him, no matter the velocity of the ball approaching him.

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However, watching the game I realised that both Ljubcic and Murray's return were on point, they hardly got service balls passed each other; the match was wonderful to watch.   Then it dawned on me, that these guys have spent countless hours watching and studying there predecessors.  I can imagine that Murray, Federrer, Nadal, Djokovic and others spend many hours not just practicing and hitting ball around the court, but they would have studied the service game of Pete Sampras, they seem to have studied the anticipation and returns of Andre Agassi.  

Adding their knowledge and abilities, the result is a combination of the skills and know how of their   predecessors coupled with their hard work, training and tools they have acquired, thereby making them even better than the generation of tennis players before them.This caused me to realise that it is a norm for sports personalities to be better than the generation that was before them, for they spend countless hours learning from those that were before them.  Whilst us in the church, do the opposite.  We negate the knowledge, wisdom and power of our fore-fathers, their prayer lives, their discipline to study, their seeking of God through frequent fasting and prayers.  While we expect to get better.  I have realised that it won't work.  We have studied more and are more theological than our fore-fathers, yet we are missing the power and anointing they had.

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We should take a leaf from the pages of those in sports; that is; to spend countless hours studying the actions of our fore-fathers and implementing the skills and tools they used, while adding what we have in us as well.  Amazing!

Just like the children of Israel who actually entered the Promised Land, their fore-fathers died in the wilderness with the knowledge they had of God.  They had not studied their fore-fathers before them, their knowledge, their faith, their victories and their walk with God.

I pray we learn from both groups.  Let us not allow any more of our fore-fathers to die with their knowledge and experience of God without it being passed on, and let us like those in the sports world, combine what we have learned from our fore-fathers with what we have and become better at pleasing and serving God.

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Progression Through the Years
By: Dr. Claudette King
Author
IAU London President
Aenon Europe Facilitator
Teacher
Preacher
Itinerant Speaker