magazine!<\/em><\/a><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\nI couldn\u2019t stop thinking about how intelligent and well-trained the dogs were. How they were like teammates to their owners.<\/p>\n
They reminded me of the dogs I\u2019d grown up with on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. I was the youngest of four, nearly nine years behind my next oldest sibling. By the time I was in fourth grade, I was the only child at home.<\/p>\n
My closest companions were our two Siberian huskies. They were outside dogs and loved running around in the cold. My parents gave me a wooden dog sled one Christmas, and many a winter day I\u2019d hitch the huskies to the sled, jump on and take off across the frozen lake like I was in the Iditarod.<\/p>\n
Maybe that\u2019s why I was drawn to Labs. Not only were they excellent companions, they served a solid purpose. That was the odd part of my dream. Even though we lived on a lake famous for great fishing, my family wasn\u2019t into fishing or hunting. We were sports-centered.<\/p>\n
My mom\u2019s father taught her and my older siblings to play tennis. So when I came along, it was no surprise that I picked up a racket when I was four. By nine I was playing at Nationals. Later, I received a tennis scholarship to Stanford and left after one year to turn pro. I\u2019d been competing on the tour ever since.<\/p>\n
After that outing with my fitness coach, I was set on finding a Lab to be a hunting companion.<\/p>\n
There was a big stumbling block, though: Who would take care of my dog while I was away on tour? I was single and lived alone. My siblings had their own lives. My parents lived nearby, but they were nearing 70.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid, we don\u2019t want that kind of responsibility at our age,\u201d Mom told me. \u201cWe have had enough dogs to know we have had enough of dogs!\u201d<\/p>\n
It was time to let go of my dream. I felt like a little kid who\u2019d just found out the Christmas gift he\u2019d prayed for all year wasn\u2019t under the tree.<\/p>\n
Then a paper slipped under the door of my hotel room. A fax, from Mom.<\/p>\n
This wasn\u2019t unusual. She often sent faxes with news and encouragement from home, with some tennis tips and Bible verses mixed in.<\/p>\n
What was <\/em>unusual was how she began: \u201cI came across a beautiful yellow Lab on my morning walk through the neighborhood,\u201d she wrote. \u201cHis owner lives a few blocks from us. But I\u2019ve never seen his dog before.\u201d That\u2019s odd, <\/em>I thought.<\/p>\nShe described the dog\u2019s beautiful coat, big brown eyes, cheerful personality. \u201cIf I ever got a dog,\u201d she closed with, \u201cI would get one just like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
If she ever got a dog? <\/em>Was this really my mom? Hadn\u2019t she told me that she was done with dogs? What had gotten into her?<\/p>\nThe next day, there was another fax from Mom, this one even more bewildering. \u201cI called the dog\u2019s breeder to find out more about her dogs and breeding philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The day after that, another fax arrived with this previously unimaginable statement: \u201cI sent the breeder a down payment on a puppy today.\u201d<\/p>\n
What?! You could\u2019ve knocked me over with a feather.<\/p>\n
I wish I could say the news inspired me to swashbuckle my way through the Japan Open, but I lost in the early rounds and flew home.<\/p>\n
We went to visit the litter of puppies. One of them, a male, looked straight out of a dog show. He had an athletic build, a beautiful buff-colored coat and almond-shaped brown eyes. He walked over to me and fell asleep with his little head resting on my shoe.<\/p>\n
He was the one. I knew it. Dad was soon building a run outside their house in anticipation of his arrival.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for me to see that Ben was no ordinary dog. His puppy misbehavior\u2014chewed shoes, accidents, nipping\u2014was minimal. He learned basic commands quickly. He was intelligent, gentle and thoughtful.<\/p>\n
That dog run? Ben never spent a night in it. He just seemed to belong right with us, wherever we were. When I was on the road for tournaments, Mom and Dad were happy to dog-sit. I called home and got updates every day.<\/p>\n
Soon I started Ben\u2019s training. That turned our walks into an adventure. \u201cFetch it, Ben!\u201d I\u2019d shout, throwing his rubber retrieving dummy into the marsh that bordered a street in my neighborhood. He\u2019d disappear into the cattails…then burst out with the dummy in his mouth and tail wagging.<\/p>\n
\u201cAtta boy,\u201d I\u2019d say, patting his head. Sometimes I <\/em>would hide. He\u2019d always find me too.<\/p>\nIf I knocked a tennis ball over the fence while practicing, Ben would run into the trees to find it, sifting through the dozens of balls that had landed there. Minutes later, he\u2019d trot out proudly with the exact ball that I had hit\u2014never anyone else\u2019s\u2014in his mouth.<\/p>\n
Everywhere I went, Ben went too. Now I knew why Jacob in the Bible named his son Benjamin, meaning \u201cson of my right hand.\u201d That\u2019s what Ben was to me. I loved him dearly and deeply. Ben brought something to my life that I never knew a dog could.<\/p>\n
The year Ben was three, 2001, was a time of change. I\u2019d been dating Brodie, a girl I\u2019d known for most of my life, but that year we broke up. I retired from the professional tennis tour.<\/p>\n
I was in my early thirties, and injuries had taken their toll. I continued to play parttime in senior\u2019s tournaments as I set out to discover the answer to the question What\u2019s next after tennis?<\/p>\n
One thing made the transition easier: Ben. God brought Ben to me at just the right time, <\/em>I thought. So I\u2019ve got to trust that he has new and good plans in store for me.<\/em><\/p>\nI was driving with my parents one day, listening to the radio, when out of the blue Mom posed a question that was more like an answer: \u201cDavid, have you ever thought about getting into radio?\u201d<\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t. But a few weeks later I got an unlikely phone call from a radio station, asking if I\u2019d like to host one of their programs. Soon I was producing and hosting The Christian Worldview <\/em>every week…with Ben at my feet in the studio.<\/p>\nAfter recording, it was time for The David and Ben Show. <\/em>We loved heading up to Lake Superior for fun. \u201cCareful, boy!\u201d I\u2019d say, before tossing his dummy into the rough, freezing surf. No matter how high the waves were, Ben dove in with his signature resolve.<\/p>\nSoon after he turned eight, Ben got sick. At first I thought it might just be fatigue, but when he stopped eating I took him straight to the vet. The diagnosis was devastating: prostate cancer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was heartbroken. I cried out to God, \u201cWhy did you bring Ben into my life only to take him away so soon?\u201d<\/p>\n
Treatment failed. I couldn\u2019t bear to see him suffer anymore. Mom and Dad couldn\u2019t either. We called the vet, who came to the house. She assured us that we were making the right decision to put him down.<\/p>\n
Ben was lying on the couch, nodding in and out of sleep. He\u2019d lost a lot of weight, but his face still had that look of serenity and nobility. I put my arm around him and buried my head in his neck. \u201cThat\u2019s my boy,\u201d I whispered. \u201cYou\u2019ll always be my boy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The vet found a vein in Ben\u2019s rear leg and administered the injection. He turned his head to look, then rested it back on the couch and closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis heart has stopped,\u201d the vet said quietly. \u201cHe\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remained slumped over him, gently stroking his side.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until I watched the vet leave with my beloved Ben that a dam inside me broke. Mom and Dad wept for hours with me. \u201cI\u2019m so grateful to have had Ben,\u201d I said. \u201cI just don\u2019t understand why he had to leave so soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered how Ben had come into my life right when I was about to give up my dream of getting a dog. And yet God moved to make my dream come true. He even changed my parents\u2019 minds.<\/p>\n
He knew Ben would teach me how to live more fully and love more deeply. In the midst of my grief, God expanded my understanding of his higher plans for us, and his grace.<\/p>\n
Remember Brodie? We got back together and we\u2019ve been married for five years. We have a son, Tommy, and\u2014this probably won\u2019t surprise you\u2014not one but two Labs, Gracie and Billy.<\/p>\n
All because my boy Ben opened my heart.<\/p>\n