Pray

Prayer has been the place this season when everything comes together. Prayer is the place where we have been able to recognize and thank God for what God's work and presence in our team. Prayer is the place we have been able to remember God working in years and months past and ask God to do these wonderful things again. Prayer is the place that we have been able to stay open to blessings, asking God to keep our eyes open for opportunities to support others. Prayer has even been a blessing that we sought blessing on behalf of our opponents.

The team has teased me this year that if they had one word to describe me and what I talk about it would be "bless." I'm flattered by that, I want these great guys on my team to grow and mature into servants of all. But I don't want to lose the importance of prayer. Blessing others without allowing the Spirit of God to influence your actions ends up being pointless. You end up relying on your own wisdom to decide where to give time and money and help, and then you'll end up just being tired. Prayer rejuvenates, prayer is a time of rest, prayer is a time of thought, prayer is the time of repose.

As we head toward the end of the season, I hope prayer will be in the forefront of our thoughts. We should still pray for our opponents, because though we will compete we want the ultimate good for all people. We should be praying for our teammates, because we all struggle and we all need support. We should be praying for ourselves, because we all become tired, injured, and disinterested and sometimes we just need someone to hear our cry for mercy.

So let prayer and blessing define the last several weeks of the tennis season, together. Pray and bless, bless and pray. Repose and movement, movement and repose.