Tennis Lessons

I love my Saturday tennis lessons.  It is a small group; usually 4 of us.  We are taught by Bill O'Boyle (yes, happy St. Patrick's day to a true Irishman!).  My very first tennis team was captained by Bill's wife, Kim.  As a team, we took weekly lessons from Bill .  He has taught me much of what I know about tennis strategy. Yesterday, Bill and Kim wore green to our tennis clinic.  I did, too, but totally not thinking about St. Patrick's day.  How fun!  Today I wore a bit of green to church and then went to lunch solo to Hickory Tavern and was given a beautiful green t-shirt for being one of the first 50 customers.  I am wearing it as I type...

Back to tennis lessons...I love the drills and play that we do.  It gets me out of bed on Saturday and gets me moving.  Although, my body doth protests!  I am slow to move...arguably the slowest of the bunch each Saturday.  Sometimes I stand and yawn.  Literally, I yawn and hold my racquet casually like it's an umbrella and not a weapon to help me win.  Truth be told, I vacillate between caring about winning and not caring at all.  I play because I love to play.  I like to win.  I very much like to win. But I have taught myself not to care too much.  I often don't stand a chance to win and I am afraid that if I care too much and lose too often that I will quit playing.  I want to play for the love of it.  Sometimes playing to win can be painful.  Like in life, I just want to enjoy the journey and not be SO concerned about the destination.

Maybe what I need is a sports psychologist.  :)  The funny part about my method is that sometimes I win in spite of myself.  Bill O'Boyle says that I lull my opponents...I make them think that I have given up, then I go for the kill.  I take them off-guard. That is my (subconscious?) strategy for winning, and it works sometimes.  It works unless my opponents play strong and offensive.  When they hit hard and come to the net, and they make me run...I eventually lose.  I can't move fast enough and I can't keep up their fast pace.  If I am allowed to set the pace slower, I can lull them and then hit a winning shot.

One Saturday in December, I was so tired that I yelled, "I've got nothing left!"    For the remainder of our lesson, Bill called me "Nuthin'Left"  Here comes Nothin'Left! Watch out, Nothin'Left is serving!  We laughed so much over that.  But then I got a second wind.  I won some points.  I was serious when I said that I had nothing left. But with laughter, somehow I got renewed energy.  Enough to make the others think I was pretending so that I could lull them off-guard, Bill would say.  But truly, I regretted saying that I had nothing left as soon as it came out of my mouth.  That is not something you let your opponents hear.  And as there is power in words, I don't want to be known as "Nothin'Left."  Reminds me of "Much-Afraid," the character in Hannah Hurnard's classic book, "Hinds Feet on High Places." 

Yesterday, more laughter ensued when one of the clinic participants, MJ, asked Bill how she could be more like me.  She wants to win so badly and she is an excellent tennis player.  She is much faster than I am and she hits much harder.  But during one round, I actually won more points that MJ and Kim.  MJ admires how laid back I am on the court.  At one point, she and Kim pretended to be me and stood there on the other side of the net yawning big yawns.  It was SO FUNNY when MJ asked how she could learn to be more like me.  Kim said, "Bill...she actually wants you to teach her how to play like Janice!"  Like there was a Janice-method.  Ha!Ha! I am the worst of the 4 of us.  Bill then pointed out that I try to slow them down.  If I get them to play at my pace, I can place the ball and take them off-guard.  They have to be on the offensive and hit at a hard pace to beat me, which they did in the second round that we played.  Whoever sets the pace has a better chance of winning.

Like many things in life, there is a spiritual analogy here that I don't want to miss.  I am a Christian and I have a Biblical world view.  I interpret the world though my belief in Jesus Christ and all that the Bible says about Him and about life.  It is clear in scripture that I do have an opponent in life.  I have an enemy and his name is Satan.  (Sometimes I have another enemy and her name is Janice!  But I am working on that.)  Satan is the enemy of God and all of God's children.  He is a rebellious angel who took other angels (now demons) with him in his fall from glory. He is conniving and deceptive.  He manipulated Eve who invited Adam to follow suit. He continues to deceive and add confusion to our world.  He loves best to strike when I am off-guard, when I am lulled into complacency.  

I think most people would admit that there is evil in this world.  Some of the atrocities committed, one human being to another, are unspeakable.  Surely Satan and demonic forces are behind much of it.  But I think he is so clever, he prefers to be more subtle than obvious pure evil.  He knows that he is better off disguising himself as an angel of light.  2 Corinthians 11:14 says ...for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.  He prefers to try to keep us busy or confused or distracted to the point of forgetting about spiritual things.  He prefers that we do not even believe in him, for if we deny the reality of evil, we can easily deny that we need a Savior.

Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.  1 Peter 5:8-9

I played a doubles match today.  I decided to play to win.  I gave it my best and I was alert (no yawning).  I made the choice to show up physically and mentally. When I arrived at the court I told my partner..."I came to win!"  She laughed and said, "Does that mean you're going to move?"  Like I said earlier, I am not the fastest player on the court...I am never the fastest.  But I can be clever.  I can play to win.  I am sorry to say that we did not win.  But because I was present...I played hard...I moved as best I could...I feel good about it.  I am not sad.  I am not terribly disappointed.  I don't feel like quitting.  I feel like trying harder again tomorrow.  And I will.

Maybe I did learn more than I realized at the time yesterday at tennis clinic. Whether I acknowledge it or not when I am on the court, I am in a game where the object is to win.  I can choose to own it and play to win or I can ignore my desire to win.  But that doesn't change the reality of the game.  In fact, if I ignore the fact that I am in a competition, I am almost certain to lose, especially if I am playing someone of equal skills.

I am also in a spiritual battle daily.  I can acknowledge it and prepare for it or I can ignore it.  But ignoring it doesn't make it go away.  Pretending it is not real doesn't make it so.  I could decide that gravity is not real and jump off of a 10-story building...and I would find out quickly that gravity is an immutable law.  So it is with Truth.  So it is with light and darkness.  I am so thankful for Truth in the person of Jesus Christ, who "...for the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2

Playing tennis is a joy.  An even greater joy in my life is following Jesus.  Never a dull moment, but always worth it.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Ephesians 6:10-13