Bless.

Throughout the past two years, we've developed our themes of our walk with God. The one that involves the most change in our actions and behaviors is blessing. It is an attitude that we take, but it also comes out in how we treat others. Because it is about others.

It is not about us.

If there's one thing that has impacted my life more than anything, it is realizing that carrying out the will of God is not about me, it is about how I respond to others. I remember being shocked when my church was walking through a book called "The Purpose Driven Life." The very first chapter ended by making the point that life is not about us. Period.

So as we come to the last week of the season, it's a good reminder that we need to be a blessing. We're going to have a huge amount of opportunities over the next few days. Opportunities to bless teammates by sharing in their success. Opportunities to bless opponents by giving them their credit, applauding good shots, and giving them the best matches we can muster. Opportunities to bless parents, friends and teammates that come to watch us with thanks and appreciation. Opportunities to forget about ourselves and just enjoy the team.

I think about what Luke Hostetter wrote last year in a book the seniors gave me. He said, "Even though I was struggling... the mindset about being a blessing helped carry me through the season and have fun with the rest of the team." And you know what, it carried him through the end of the season as well. With his thoughts focused on the rest of the team, I can clearly see Luke raising his arms in a team victory as Johnny and Jeremy captured the 3rd point to give us a Sectional crown. He was down big to Preston Swain of NorthWood at the time, but was playing incredibly well. He went on to be blessed with a tiebreak win in the 2nd set, a result of his loose play.

But that mindset of blessing others is something I want us to take away from the season. Whether it be today, tomorrow at the Sectional, during the offseason while we work to improve for next year, during the summer when we head back to camp, or in the dog days of August two-a-days. Let blessing define our team's actions.

It is our "new" tradition.

Recognize. Remember. Bless. Pray.

Over the past two years, I've wanted to develop a solid, consistent spiritual base for this tennis team. So we started last summer at tennis camp focusing on 4 verbs. Recognizing what God is doing for us in the present, remembering the ways that God has been with us in the past, blessing others in the same ways that God has blessed us, and bringing everyone and everything under prayer in conversation with God.

Perhaps I have been a bit lax this year about in the face of the team with these themes, it has been a difficult year. And yet, God has been active in many ways. God has blessed us in many ways. And I think it is worth asking the question of ourselves: Have we noticed? Have we remembered our God? Have we cared for others? Have we been in prayer?

I know that the answer for me is "no" for some of those questions. And as much as it has been "no," I have been distant from God. We have gone through many trials this tennis season, and I, like a fool, have tried to take a lot of it on my own back. I can't handle it all. But the whole time I've been prideful in my own efforts, decisions, and accomplishments, God has been at work too. I believe it's about time to slow my efforts, humble myself, and recognize how God has been present.

Recognize
- God has blessed our goals, we have worked hard and we have improved. The tournament this weekend was testament to that.
- We have been given the opportunity to become a united team. Everyone that is/and has been giving, encouraging, helpful to others and worked toward the team goal of improvement has a community of friends around them supporting them.
- We have been given the opportunity to share in the success of others. Seth's undefeated run this weekend gave us one opportunity. Ben's lone victory against Fairfield gave us another. Kyle and Austin's comeback win against Westview was another chance to celebrate with others. Their have been moments of God's beauty that have come through.
- And as this season starts to draw to a close, and the blessings above begin to be seen, I feel that their really is a peace about this team. An assurance and a confidence is growing. We have matured and are still maturing at the same time. It is a peaceful journey, and we all have been a part of that peace.

Remember
- God has certainly given us memories this tennis season, from tennis camp through the first 9 weeks. I am thankful for those memories.
- I remember from further back though, I remember how I poured prayer over last year's team, and how God responded specifically to my prayers... for Jeremy Thomas to play his best tennis, for Daniel to keep his cool under calm and be blessed for his hard work, for Jared's ability to have confidence in his dominance, for Johnny to believe that he and Jeremy could compete with anyone. And God answered those and more...

Bless
- We still have the opportunity to thank God for the blessings by passing the blessing forward to others. How we do that is a question for all of us to think about.
- Can we bring unity to other situations we are a part of? School, family, church, etc.?
- Can we bring peace to situations in which we are causing conflict? With friends, teachers, family, others?
- Can we lift up the less fortunate in any way? Donating time, giving what we can, paying attention to how our actions affect them?
- How will we pass the blessing on?

Pray
I encourage us all to think about bring the recognition, remembrance, blessing all together in prayer. Communicate with God about all that is going on, and bring others before him as well.
- Pray for the other teams that we will play in Sectional. Pray for health, pray for good things to be happening in their lives, pray for them to play well.
- Pray for your teammates, especially those whose season is ending tonight or tomorrow. The younger guys need the blessing of having older guys come along side them.
- Pray for yourself, honestly. Bring burdens and stresses and joys before God. Let God hear you, loud and clear.
- Pray for others. Whoever they may be. The soccer team, your next door neighbor, Andrew Lanctot, whoever. Let yourself be a person of prayer.

These are my thoughts as we enter the last weeks of the season. I have been proud of this team, every one who has been a part of it at any point. We have grown on the courts, and I think we are growing as people. Let's keep both tennis and personal growth going strong.

Bless.

Tennis season is upon us again. The two-a-day practices have begun, we've hit hundreds of serves, volleys, and overheads. We're tired of imaginary tennis. We know we're supposed to move our feet, we just are too exhausted to try.

And so, with all the tennis overload. I think it's time to introduce something different that is just as important. It's time for the devotional portion of the Bethany Christian tennis blog.

Now, things I post here are only to be enhancements or rehashings of we cover in practice or team sessions, so hopefully they won't be completely new for players. But this is such a crucial part of what it means to be a Bethany Christian tennis player, we pursue things to improve and make them excellent. That includes working, learning, growing and maturing in our faith.

Last season, we introduced a series of verbs that will stand to be the basis of our actions. That was "Recognize. Remember. Bless. Pray." As soon as I get back to school and have some time with the old Photoshop, you'll see that reappear on the top graphic of the page. We want to continue to develop our faith by recognizing how God is currently working in our lives, remembering how God has worked for us and others in the past, then actively passing this blessing on to others, and continuing the relational and personal aspect of faith in prayer. To be refreshed on all we've covered in these areas, check the devotional links on the side.

This year, we're going to begin to unpack these verbs one by one. At tennis camp, we started by looking at the idea of blessing. To so many people, blessing has become to mean so much more than it does Biblically. It means that God wants you to be rich, fat, and happy. But we looked at Psalm 128 and saw that it was much simpler than that.

These are the blessing of Psalm 128:
1. That you get the fair reward of the work that you put in.
2. That you get to be part of a community, a family, that shares the same goals.
3. That you are allowed to see and share in the success of others in a community.
4. That you get to be a part of bringing peace.

Those are the parts of blessing. So, we realize that we're blessed when God allows us the fair result of the work we've put in. In thinking through that logically, that means we better put in a fair amount of work if we want to be successful. We realized that we need to come together around the same goals, our else our community will splinter and we will not be blessed by unity. We thought about the fact that despite tennis being an individual sport, we may be blessed this year by getting to experience and watch the success of others. And we should rejoice in that blessing instead of wallowing in our own difficulties or losses. Finally, we saw that any time we are an instrument of peace, that in and of itself is a blessing.

So that's a quick reminder of where we've been with devotionals this year. We hope to continue to be formed by this idea of blessing, so that we can appropriately fill ourselves up with the right understanding, and then spill over to bless others as well!

Recognize. Remember. Bless. Pray.

I left aside the usual Thursday to come back to something more important today. As the school year drags on and we get further away from tennis season, further away from the influences and blessings that God placed in our lives, we also may tend to lose what we learned from that time.

I forget often about the value of hard work in completing a task successfully, about how the Lord will bless the labor that we do if we honor God with it. I forget the importance of praying for those who annoy or oppose me. I forget the blessing that I can be to many of my students.

So I wanted to put this back out here for comments.

What lessons do you remember learning throughout this past year?
In what ways is the Lord working in your life right now?
Do you see places where others need you to be a blessing?
Have you continued to pray for the annoying, the opposing, and your enemies?

I hope we can continue thinking about these themes for quite a while!

(By the way, the picture says recognize, remember, bless, and pray in Hebrew)

Holiday Season: Bless

That's my favorite Christmas carol, Joy to the World. I've always liked it because it's kind of upbeat compared to some of the others (like God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, etc.) and because a 90's ska band named the O.C. Supertones did a sweet rendition of it. But recently I've been thinking that the song might have a deeper message to it.

Christmas can be a pretty selfish holiday. I mean, one of the first things that you do is make up a list of stuff that you want. Then you spend a lot of time wondering whether your parents or grandparents will make your wishes come true. Then you spend time pouting about what you didn't get (okay, hopefully you don't do that). In my family, we even have a tradition of taking our Christmas money and going shopping for all the things that we still want after Christmas morning. Yea, it can get pretty self-centered if you let it. By the way, I want a Prince 03 White MP. Oh, wait...

When things start to get self-centered, it's always good to have a little reminder that life, especially life following Christ, is about others. That is what I think Joy to the World can do. When we remember Christmas, we should think of the story of Jesus, and know that the joy of Christ was for the whole world. Well, okay, that includes us but is way beyond ourselves.

Christ brought joy and hope to all people, and as Christ followers, we should follow Jesus' example by bringing joy and hope to our worlds. That can mean a lot of things throughout the Christmas season. For me it will mean helping my mom clean dishes and talking with her instead of just vegging on the couch after Christmas dinner. It will mean having just as much happiness about what I give as I do about what I get. It will mean making sure that my wife is happy about the amount of time we are spending with her family. It will mean keeping my eyes out for the concerns of others. Hope that it means the same to you as well. Well, except without the wife part.

So here's to holiday cheer, and bringing joy to the world.

And if you are still sad, looks like Daniel's ready for a hug...

Recognize. Remember. Bless. Pray.

Recognize: Answered Prayer.
--- From the "Prayer Wall"

"May we eat the fruit of our labor; may blessings and Your presence be with us."
So far, answered.

"Be with everyone's health and strength and allow us to play our best when it counts the most."
So far, answered.

"Please help me to conquer my fear of losing in sectional."
Answered.

"Keep more rain off us, but when it does rain, enable us to use the extra time well. Help the rain to be a blessing in some way.
This was previously answered. We added and won the Penn match because of the rain.

"Help me to remember how to play the kind of clutch tennis I could last year."
So far, answered.

"Be with all the teams approaching sectional, and help everyone to be sportsmanlike and make good line calls, and for those who play their last match, help it to be fun and not a huge let-down."
I think Fairfield would say it was fun.

Remember: What it feels like to play well, with confidence.
Take this blessing of the Lord's into our next matches.

Bless: Our opponents again.
We have been playing well, we have been playing fairly. Let's continue this into the Regional, hoping that others will play well also. Let's enjoy our matches!

Pray: Continuously.
Let us keep this cycle in our mind, and continue to bless others with our prayer as well. Our families, our teammates, our classmates, our opponents all can be the recipients of our prayers. Let us bless them and seek the Lord together in a journey of discipleship.

Recognize. Remember. Bless. Pray.

This cycle has been critical to our development as disciples this year. As the season drags longer, we get wrapped up in so many things. This cycle can bring us back to where we need to be. Most of it is the "thinking" part of our "think and act" mantra. It allows God to again become a part of our thoughts, so that our actions flow out of praise, thankfulness, and truth and not the other kind of mixed up emotions that bombard us throughout life.

So what do we recognize God doing among us right now? We're all healthy heading into the tournament. We're all still in good relationships with our teammates and coaches. We've been able to come together as one, and that's exciting because it lessens the pressure come tournament time. Like Johnny said, we're not going to be disappointed in anyone, we're still going to love them. I recognize that this love and relationship-building between players happens on a small level, but to have 7, 8, 10, 12 or even more guys supporting each, their is a spirit of God at work among us. I praise God for the Spirit's presence here with us, at this point in our season.

What do we remember that God has done for us this season? I remember Johnny and Mikey's timely recovery from injury. Quicker than expected in Johnny's case. I remember the rain wiping out the Warsaw Invitational, and because of that we got to pick up Westview, Concord, and Penn. I don't know what God's involvement really was in all that, but for me, that is an example of how God steps into bad situations and makes them turn out for the good. It's such a big part of God's character to redeem bad situations and make them turn for the good. So perhaps the rain was just a natural consequence of a natural hurricane during normal hurricane season, but the natural situation was still turned for our good. I thank God that bad situations are never hopeless, because we know the Lord is at work.

How are we blessing right now? Well, the unity of the team comes to mind. And that we are hopefully lifting the other teams in the area up in prayer. And that we have been preparing to bless others because of the way that the Lord has blessed us. And that I'm constantly reminding us to think of being a bless, so much that it's all you'll probably remember of me when you all graduate and are coaching your own tennis teams. But I guess it's an okay thing to remember. I've been blessed by the way you guys take faith fairly seriously and allow me to speak about it. Let us continue to be a blessing.

And pray. The place where everything comes together. The place where we tell God of our love, and how we recognize God's work, the stories we remember of God's presence among us. The place where we ask God who in our life needs a blessing, and how we can provide it. A place of honesty, of humility, of thankfulness, of praise. A place to plead for God's presence, blessing, grace and mercy. I am not ashamed to say I will be praying right up and through the tournament, no matter what happens.

Because I have recognized that God's works all situations for good.

Bless Others, Pray for Others

In this time leading up to Sectional, it is easy to forget our ideas this season of blessing others and praying for our enemies as we instead focus our prayers on our own goals, hopes and fears. While it is very important to take the issues we are dealing with before the Lord, we should not let ourselves become the entire focus of our spiritual thoughts.

Because I care so much about tennis, so much about the season, so much about each of our players, that it is very easy for me to let that consume all of my thoughts and prayers. It crowds out my wife, it crowds out my son, it crowds out my school work, it crowds out my study of Scripture, it crowds out my work at my church, it crowds out my work in the community. In short, tennis can become an idol for me if I'm not careful. It can become something for me that I judge my whole faith based on how tennis is going. It's really intensely selfish.

So this simple reminder is to keep our eyes out for others this week. Perhaps praying for the other teams in Sectional, perhaps helping out around the school, perhaps cheering up the JV players who are suddenly done with their season. I hope that we can keep ourselves open to how God is working all around us, and not be consumed with tennis every waking hour.

So prayers for each other and for the Sectional are appreciated and needed, our hard work and focus at practice is needed, but let's ask a little more of ourselves. Let's bless someone other than a teammate this week. Let's pray for others too.

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.

Recognize. Remember. Bless. Pray.

Are we seeing and recognizing God's presence anywhere as of late?
--> Perhaps taking the bad situation with the rain and making it better by providing an opportunity to play Concord, Westview, and Penn?
--> Perhaps the JV getting another match against LaVille is a blessing, it's always good to play more!
--> Perhaps you can think of something else?

Are we carrying with us the confidence that God will continue to be our hope in the present and future because of what God has done in the past?
--> God has taken poor performances and turned them into beautiful endings.
--> God has helped everything come together at the right time.
--> God has done many other things for you personally, what are they?

Are we blessing others?
--> Do we sincerely care about those around us?
--> Do we look for places to serve others?
--> Do we encourage our teammates and classmates?
--> Do we respond to God's blessings with blessings of our own?

Are we praying?
--> For our teammates?
--> For our families?
--> For our school?
--> For our "enemies"?
--> For our world?

Bless.

So far this season, we've been a blessing to strangers, we've been a blessing to each other, and we continue to reflect on the blessing God has been to us. This just brings up one more thing, that I hope we can focus on:

How are we being a blessing to our "enemies" or our opponents?

We have a big match coming up this weekend, against a strong Sectional opponent. We certainly are going to do our best to defeat them. But how do we bless them despite our efforts to win? It's an important question, and Jesus brings up it's implications in the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 5:43-47:
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

If we bless only those we know (the tennis team and school around us) then what good, what excellence are we really displaying? Christ-likeness often means going beyond the normal and the expected. I don't have an answer as to how we bless those we play against. I think a good start is honesty and fairness, but we might be presented with the opportunity to do more. Let's make sure we take advantage of that.