All in One Smash

Within minutes, the match was over. Dave stormed off to the dressing room, leaving the dust of another muffed chance kicked up by his heels.

How sad.

But the really sad thing was how you could see it coming, in the way Dave had been marching grim-faced around the court during the second set. Like he was muttering to himself, 'I'm not going to blow it this time!' With each game that passed, you could almost sense that chip on his shoulder growing heavier with the burden of so many years of frustration.

Then came the lob, and the almost perceptible sound of Dave clenching his teeth.

This was it, his big chance to prove to the world and to himself that he wasn't the failure he seemed to be. This was his moment of glory, when he'd blow away all his niggling self-doubts once and for all.

All in one smash.

I don't know about you, but I identify with Dave. How many times have I been presented with a chance of success, an opportune moment served up on a plate, and I've smashed it way out of the court? Instead of me dispatching all those years of frustration in one glorious blow, that blow ends up encapsulating all my failures.

Short cuts to ridding ourselves of our frustrations never work. We need to learn from the ant. "Go to the ant," the ancient Hebrew proverb goes. The ant chips away at its task, unassumingly, imperceptibly, reducing its mountains to chaff.

Whereas Dave and I try to smash them to smithereens - and end up having things blow up in our face.

I wish I would learn from these hashed moments, but I don't seem to. Maybe I can learn from Dave's experience. See it coming before it happens. Instead of marching around grim-faced trying to keep up my fragile confidence against the mounting tide of doubt, I could take a moment to stop and pray.

"Lord, I'm sure to blow this unless You intervene. I depend on You. I humble myself, God, like the ant!"

Because in the end, there's self-sabotaging blindness in trying to prove oneself. Dave could have let that ball bounce. The moment wouldn't have been so glorious or defining, but it might have given him a couple seconds to reposition, to choose his next shot carefully and win the point.

Which was more important than proving anything to himself or about himself in that moment.

My challenge is this. Will I let the ball bounce?

Will I take a moment, an hour, a day - a year - just to wait, seek calmness, let God in - before I try to finish off my 'point' - my dream, my project, my plan?

What about that work opportunity that sets my adrenaline rising? That relationship? That creative opening?

Will I just take a deep breath, seek that space of thankfulness, of having nothing to prove, before trying to finish it off?

The race isn't for the swift, nor the battle for the strong

Ecclesiastes 9:11

I saw a bit of a tennis match the other day - just five minutes, but it was enough to learn a life lesson.

One player - I'll call him 'Dave' - has a reputation for blowing matches at crucial moments. And one of those moments had arrived.

He was one set down in a three-set match, 5-5 in the second and serving to stay alive.

15-15.

Dave served a scorcher which the other player ('Ivan') barely managed to return. The point went on. Dave forced his opponent to one corner of the court, then to the other, but Ivan hung on.

You could feel the tension rising. Would Dave clinch it this time?

Suddenly, his chance came. A weak lob from Ivan left the ball looping towards Dave at the net. The point was his. All he had to do was ...

Smash!

Dave belted the ball with all his might, way out of the court. Point to Ivan. Dave hurled his racket to the ground in fury.

Another chance blown.