Devo #1: All that matters...

Our theme for this year...

"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

Galatians 5:6

What is faith?

Let me tell you a story...

It was 2008, and Westview was one of the dominant teams in our area. Playing #1 singles for them was Sherry Good’s son, Steffen. Steffen was one of the better players in our area, and one thing that made him very effective was his topspun kick serve. He hit the same devastating serve as a first and second serve. It was hard, heavy, and bounced high. It was really difficult to return. In the match against our #1S, Luke Hostetter, it was an effective weapon. But as the #1S match went on, it became obvious that the team match would come down to which player won that position. It was a tight match, Steffen had won the first set in a tiebreak, and the second set was close too. But as it got nervy, Steffen started missing his serve a bit more.

The match pushed to a third set, and since this happened to be in a tournament, the third set was a 10 point tiebreak. With the score tied at 8-8 in the tiebreak, Steffen was serving. He wound up to hit his first serve and skied it off the top of his racket. We were playing at Concord, and his serve flew over the fence and down the hill to a little track area near the court. No where near the service box. It was embarrassing (or I would have been embarrassed). It was nerve wracking, because now he had to get second serve in our Luke would be one point away from winning the match for us. So, did Steffen relax on his second serve? Just dink it in.

No, he had faith.

He came back to what he had worked on. He turned back to his strength. He took the same swing as all his other first and second serves throughout the match and served a bullet. Luke couldn’t get the return, and Steffen went on to win the tiebreak 10-8. All because in a moment where his serve had betrayed him, he turned back to it and hit it again.

That’s faith. It’s not expecting that things will go right all the time. It’s turning back when things don’t go right. It’s sticking with it. It is commitment.

It is easy to turn to the next thing. I remember that I had a tennis player several years ago who struggled with his two-handed backhand. When it went in, it was a devastating shot. It would land just feet in front of the baseline with heavy topspin. After a match where it was particularly bad, I came back to practice the next day to find him working on... a one-handed backhand.

But you can see the problem, right? He’s never really hit one-handed before, and so now instead of deepening and strengthening a shot, he has moved on to a new one. And sure, there was the intense gratification of pounding a good one on his third or fourth try, that blessed flush of newness. But everything else was weaker. He missed more. He didn’t get the same depth.

But it was easier than having faith.

Faith, returning again to the same thing, committing to that, is hard but it deepens and strengthens. It is where real lasting change takes place. That becomes even more powerful when it is tied to relationship. It’s one thing when your serve lets you down, and you give it another whack. It’s another when it’s your doubles partner that fails you, not working hard in practice. Or when your best friend ignores you. Or your dad lets you down. Or God.

But the beauty of faith in relationship isn’t that you turn back, and everything instantly better. It’s that you turn back and you get to honestly work on things together. To make the relationship deeper. To make the relationship stronger.

That’s what it means to express your faith (your commitment, your “coming back”) through love.

This idea of commitment, coming back and working through something in love, is just true. But it takes both sides being committed. If I have faith in my wife, and keep turning back to her, but she is running off with someone else... well, that isn’t going to deepen our relationship. So, one good question for the tennis season is:

ARE YOU IN?

Are you willing to have faith in me? Are you willing to commit to working on things? To coming back after matches or practices or frustration and figuring out together how to move forward? Are you willing to commit to your teammates? To give them grace and second chances when they fail, when they have a lazy drill? When they are distracted? When they lose the big match because they were scared? Are you willing to be part of the deepening process by giving them encouragement?

As with all things, I find that faith finds its ultimate expression in Jesus. Jesus, after his resurrection, sits down with Peter (the disciple who had denied that he even knew Jesus and thought that the women who reported his resurrection were crazy). Jesus cooks him a fisherman’s breakfast, preparing some of the fresh tilapia and bread. Jesus gently asks him three times, “Do you love me?” Three times was how many Peter denied Jesus. Jesus has come back to Peter, having faith in him. Jesus is always turning back to us. Never giving up. It’s because of this, because of Jesus and what he says about us, that we can work out faith with God.

And we’ll deepen and strengthen as people when we do, just like Peter.