Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed. – Proverbs 16:3, Amplified Bible (AMP)

Pete Sampras was a competitive junior tennis player until, at the age of 14, his coach advised him to trade his trusty two-handed backhand for a one-handed backhand ground stroke. The results were immediate; Sampras began to plummet in the junior rankings. He was erratic with his new tool for some time, but it is safe to say that he eventually grew into it. As Wikipedia reports:

During his 14-year tour career, he [Sampras] won 14 Grand Slam singles titles, becoming the first player to break Roy Emerson’s record of 12 Slams. Sampras also won 7 major indoor titles (5 ATP year-end World Championships and 2 Grand Slam Cups). He is recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.

Sampras debuted on the professional tour in 1988 and…He was the year-end world no. 1 for six consecutive years (1993–1998), a record for the Open Era. His seven Wimbledon singles championships is an Open Era record shared with Roger Federer, while Sampras’ five US Open singles titles is an Open Era record shared with both Federer and Jimmy Connors.

The move from two-handed backhand to one-handed backhand worked beautifully for Sampras, and though it was not the only contributor to his success, it was a major factor.

I wonder if there was a struggle of will in the young teenager when his coach advised him to make the switch. It is hard to give up something you trust in and believe in, but young Sampras made a choice to trust the wisdom of his coach more than his own wisdom. In essence, he handed over control of his tennis future to someone who knew more about tennis than he did, and, in the end, the choice paid off tremendously!

Each and every day we have the opportunity to make the same commitment of trust that Sampras made. Faced with the trials of life, we can choose to trust in our own wisdom, or we can choose to commit our way unto someone who knows more about life than we do: the Lord God Almighty. When we make the choice to trust, we may not see immediate results. In fact, it may seem, for a time, that we took a step backwards by choosing to follow God’s way. But, if we will be patient, we will realize that following God never leads to failure; it always leads to true success, as God Himself defines it. If we will but yield our will to His, we will begin to see life through His eyes. When that happens, He will make His plans our plans, and He will use His supernatural power to make those plans come to life.