Are we all enjoying the European Cup; it’s been encouraging watching the England team doing so well. Now we are nearing the climax of Wimbledon and a chance for individuals rather than teams to showcase their skills.
Tennis is a very individual sport, and all of the victories and defeats are determined by the individual's performance. Tennis players, unlike footballers, do not have contracts that guarantee a salary. A player's overall earnings are virtually always determined by their ranking and how successful they are over time. Players on the pro tour receive a variety of sums of money and their earnings will vary from year to year, the best 3 or 4 players taking home the lion’s share of the earnings. The difference between the best player and a lower-ranked pro is vast, even within the top 100 players. During the 2020 season, despite the restriction of Covid, the discrepancy between the £3.2 million earned by Novak Djokovic is substantial when you compare his income with that of those ranked 50-100 who earned on average £360,000.
This makes a significant difference to lifestyle; the lower-ranked player, after paying all his expenses is playing to win his or her ‘food on the table’ money, usually playing in smaller tournaments whereas the top three can be invited to attend smaller ATP tournaments with the objective of increasing the attendance levels and are frequently paid around a £1million appearance fee.....money to just turn up, win or lose.
Success seems to mean everything to the top tennis players and Wimbledon is considered the most prestigious place to showcase those skills. Every player wants to be successful at Wimbledon. I wasn’t particularly successful during my years at Wimbledon although I did have fun trying….whoa!....hang on, now before you think I graced the lawns of the All England Club in a frilly white skirt clutching my racket, no, my dreams centred around being a show court final umpire, sadly that didn’t fully materialise. It seems that just as the lower-ranked players have to work up the tournaments the umpires also have to work up and through the minor tournaments to improve their ranking…and it all seemed just too much hard work!
Perhaps you have had dreams of being successful in sporting events or business ventures or careers…but what frequently happens is that our passion overtakes our progress, and we never realise our potential. Sometimes we grimace as we think back on what could have been but perhaps that lack of achieving our passions and potential may be worth thanking God for. I am sure there are lots of people who occasionally daydream of what could have been….I certainly used to, perhaps you did as well, and I do wonder in all honesty if I, if we, could ever have survived success?
We live in a culture that generates celebrities at the drop of a hat and sadly they are not always people that have worked at their craft for years but just people in the right place at the right time and usually on TV reality programs and whose dream is to "have it all".
Could any one of us have survived success? Survived making a name for ourselves? Could we have survived “having it all”?
What if we were to grasp all of our earthly aspirations, including the praise, fame, and accolades that we may secretly desire? Could that possibly set off a nightmare? Because success includes a cost, a hidden cost, and we may end up chasing the flame of success for the rest of our lives.
Wanting to make a name for yourself is nothing new; Genesis 11:4 records the following:
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
They would never reach the heavens, but they desired a monument to their abilities, a monument to enhance their fame…they made a decision to steals God’s glory, so God stopped them…....this is something we should keep in mind!
Back to sport and the Christian athlete’s favourite verse:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” Philippians 4:13
Printed on posters, T-shirts, and locker room walls, as well as inscribed on athletes' shoes ……..and bodies.
The winning shot is made, the athlete wearing the scripture raises a finger to the skies as a nod to Jesus, who bestowed such athletic ability on him or her. For others, it's just a mantra, something to recite before a game in the hopes of instilling supernatural power in the player, and let's be honest, who wouldn't want God's power enabling the fulfilment of their hopes and dreams?
But to understand the message Paul was trying to convey when he penned those words, we need to look at his circumstances when he was moved to write.
Where was he?....well, he certainly wasn’t in the dying minutes of a dramatic sports fixture, desperately trying to score the finishing goal, nor was he attempting to achieve his life’s dream of a Wimbledon crown, he was in jail.
Paul wasn’t trying to discover the “hidden hero” in himself, nor did he long for the realisation of his dreams.
Paul was expressing his faith in Christ, that he could do all things through Christ strengthening him when he was confined to the dirt, darkness, and oppression of a Roman prison cell. And it was as a result of this strengthening that he was able to look beyond his suffering and rejoice in his divine strengthening, he was able to look beyond his suffering and look forward towards the furtherance of the gospel.
Paul could confidently face any earthly predicament. He'd learned that every Christian has a spiritual foundation, no matter how difficult things get in this material world.
But Paul had also learned something else, he had learned how to handle the good things in his life, abundance, success, prosperity, to know how to have plenty so as not to become proud or self-confident.
What does Paul say, “I know how to be brought low,” he says “and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” Philippians 4:12-13
It would seem that the “all things” here actually included the good.
Paul recounts that he needed to be strengthened by Christ to endure both the bad and the good.
As strange as it may seem Paul needed Christ so as to remain content not only when life went horribly wrong, but when it went astoundingly well. Not only do we need God to guide us through the valleys, but we also need Him to guide us securely on the mountain tops.
So maybe that popular verse isn't just about Christ strengthening us when we're struggling, when we're down, when we want to hoist up our own trophies in victory, but perhaps it’s also about Christ strengthening us so that the victories, the trophies, the successes, the applause, the life achievements we so desperately want, do not go down into our hearts to the point where we could make those things our god, our thrust, our reason for living…perhaps saving us from the longing of not only wanting to achieve great things by God’s strength but also wanting to ensure that everyone else knows we’ve achieved great things!...... because with that comes the risk of forgetting whose glory we are working for.
Can you rejoice today that you have done great things or are you like the majority of people who have had dreams that have failed to materialise, the game was never won, the promotion didn’t come, the marriage didn’t work, the babies were never born, your health continued to fail, the world cruise never set sail, the mortgage was never paid,….the list is endless…do you feel that you’re just a no-body, that you failed in your dreams?....do not lose sleep that there are no trophies collecting dust on your sideboard.
Our prayer to do great things should be that in our family, in our ministries, and in our careers, we can influence souls, fight against sin, proclaim Christ, and live to the glory of God.
That’s a prayer that God will answer because that is what he promised.
You have more than enough reason to rejoice, for while our name isn’t engraved on a trophy, it is written in heaven, we are free to be no-ones on earth because we are known in heaven. We are daughters of Almighty God. Christ is ours; heaven is ours; eternal glory will soon be ours.
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