Brothers and sisters,
I’ve already mentioned this, but a few months ago I signed up for a tennis drills class through the Raleigh Parks department. Over the last six or so weeks, I’ve ridden over twice a week to get back into playing tennis. The whole experience has been fun, but the other night we had a lesson that struck a chord with me.
See, most of the class is relatively new to playing tennis, meaning we spend a lot of time on basic stuff. A lot of that is taught through just getting out there and hitting the ball. But tennis can be frustrating because it’s really hard to consistently hit shots. There are a lot of little things that you have to combine into one fluid motion. And sometimes coaches don’t do a good job of explaining all those little things. They use vague “tennis language” instead. Even something as simple as, “Give me a forehand” can be tough.
Let me break down what all goes into hitting a routine forehand. First, you have to see what direction your opponent hit the ball. Then, you have to run to the general vicinity of the ball. Once there, ideally, you split-step, make micro-adjustments to your footwork, and turn your shoulders. Next, your racquet must go back and drop to about waist-height. As the ball gets closer, you then shift your weight forward onto your front foot, twist your torso to create torque, bring your arm forward in a low-to-high motion, make contact with the ball long enough to drive it where you want it to go, flick your wrist to give it a little spin so it stays in play, and follow through to complete that spin and reset your body for the next shot, which will be coming in two to three seconds! If any of that is off, you’ll hit a bad shot and/or a shot you didn’t mean to hit.
Well, the other night, our coach asked everyone to hit three forehands to three different spots on the court. Everyone tried and most struggled, since they are new to the game. But rather than get frustrated with us, coach stopped and broke down each individual part of hitting a forehand—every part. And we practiced each individual part. And then we practiced putting them together. And before long, we were all hitting forehands and directing them where we wanted them to go. And he told us, “See? You should never be intimidated by a forehand, cause you’ve seen that you can hit every single part of the shot correctly. You know you can do it cause you’ve already done it!”
In Christianity, I think we can be very good at speaking our own language, saying things like, “Wait on the Holy Spirit’s guidance” or “Discern God’s call in your life” or even, “Repent of your sins.” We can say these things easily enough, but sometimes it’s hard to get down to the specifics. “Ok. I want to wait for the Spirit’s guidance. But what does that mean? How long should I wait? Can I do other things while I wait?” Instead, we would do well to try and break down these concepts into simpler actions. Instead of just “waiting on the Holy Spirit,” read your Bible. Take some time to pray. Come to church. Do things that bring you joy. Allow yourself time to be quiet and sit with your thoughts. And sure enough, you may hear the Spirit speak. By breaking stuff down like that, we need not ever be intimidated by part of our faith. We can do each individual part and then start putting them together. And, before we know it, we can explore more difficult or subtle parts of our faith—cause we’ve already done each part!
Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben