Last night I was waiting for a tennis court. As the wait time increased towards a half an hour, so did my boredom it seemed. Finally a court opened up, but a woman and a man in there early 20s were in line first. There were a lot of really good players there that night, but this young woman was not one of them. I felt sorry for her because her boyfriend was telling her, "Why are you just standing there. You've got to move your feet." She replied, "I dunno." He was mister competitive and she was sweet. But not ah ... athletic it seemed.
With this waiting, I felt kind of blah, spiritually flat. Then, a thought came. Why not pray about what was right in front of me? Why not witness what God was seeing about this young woman and man? The thought came that because her ability truly came from God, why couldn't she play well? Why couldn't she? I was just still with that. I wasn't trying to change what was going on, I was just really open to change. My thought was loose and hopeful.
Soon, a court opened up for my son opened up, so I focused on our play. Here and there, when the boyfriend would berate her, I would talk to God and express His love about the situation.
Interestingly, I noticed the boyfriend was running all OVER the court. The young woman still had the unorthodox stroke, like someone who was holding a tennis racket for the first time. But, she was winning games. And, this frustrated the boyfriend who started swearing. And, that gave me more to pray about. I prayed that what blesses one, blesses all. That's an idea from a book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I thought about how that young man wasn't left out of good. The thought came to me that it could bless me too. For the first time in a long, long while, I took every point in two games. My son played well last night, so we both had fun.
Was that the whole point of this, to use God to enhance human performance? Not at all. I was just open to seeing what God was seeing, open to loving my neighbor and expecting good to tangibly be theirs on the tennis court. And that made it for a really, really fun night.
Have fun out there!
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1 comment:
This is sweet, Dan. How often we might overlook opportunities for healing, for claiming our right to see God's love in action. I value your love for your neighbors in the next court, to include them in your prayers.
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