September 2021,
All-Pro Quarterback, Gary Cuozzo, played in multiple Pro-Bowls during his distinguished ten-year NFL career. These days the beloved octogenarian leads and disciples men very effectively for Christ.
Last week Gary had a heart attack while he was alone playing golf at Quail Creek CC in Naples, FL. Most thought the timing unfortunate because the southern Florida afternoon heat had driven all the other golfers, staff, and employees to the refuge and comfort of their air-conditioned homes and some sweet tea!
But providentially for Gary the Lord had two of His own in the vicinity and available! My dear friend Chuck DeWald and I consider an empty golf course our personal playground and will blissfully play until dark despite the heat because the course is ours to possess! (“…we live…as having nothing, yet possessing everything.) II Cor. 6:9,10
At first, we were surprised to see another golfer on “our” golf course on such a hot afternoon. But even from so far away Chuck and I correctly guessed it was our friend, Gary Cuozzo. We decided to temporarily suspend our $10 match to drive over and chat up Gary unaware he was having a health crisis. Gary says they would have found him in the morning if we had not come along. Thankfully, we got Gary off the course and contacted his wife who took him to the hospital where he had surgery to put in a stent and pacemaker. He is doing just fine now.
Is there anything more exciting than to be part of God’s “timing” and purpose? Nehemiah was aware of God’s timing when he prayed and presented his needs to the King in Nehemiah 2:4,5. Queen Esther realized that it was such a “time” as this that God had made her a queen to save the Jews from Haman’s gallows and sword. Esther 4:14-16. Sometimes God sends us to unlikely locations and people as He did with Philip in Acts 8:26. He was instructed to go to the desert at noon?
I have been going to the barber shop nearby for over a year now and have enjoyed the banter and discussions on sports, weather, and politics with everyone. One day the subject was about the politics and culture shift in America.
Sensing God’s timing and the investment of a year of fraternizing I was compelled to blurt out, “Isaiah had some good wisdom on this.” They all wanted to know who this Isiah was. I told them he is in the Bible and wrote about this kind of stuff in Isaiah 5:20, 21.
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!
On my way out of the shop the barbershop owner asked me to write the verse down and how to find it. When I returned a few weeks later for my haircut they asked me if I had any more verses that might apply to current affairs. I smiled, prayed, and said, “A few!”
I live for God’s timing. I love being there at the right time in the right place with the right words for the right people. Some might call it evangelism! Isaiah had something to say about that, too.
“For the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there
but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10,11
I recently had a golfing buddy come to Christ after nine years of golfing together, sharing, tolerating, and loving him. It just confirmed to me again that it is God’s timing and not mine. And that He wins them to Himself, not me.
“He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.” I Thessalonians 5:24
Faithfully serving in His timing,
Tom and Karen Randall
