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For I know
that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the
wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For
the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil
that I do not wish…wretched man that I am! Who will set me free
from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ
our Lord!
-Romans 7:18-19, 24-25
I love tennis. Like Sammy Sosa once said about baseball, tennis has
been very, very good to me. My fondest childhood memories are of
hanging around at the courts with my friends and playing all day
long until we wore each other out. We couldn’t get enough of the
sport. During my high school and college years I spent hour after
hour working to be the best player I could be. In my twenties and
early thirties, I made a living teaching tennis and to this day I
owe a great deal to this wonderful game.
Now that I am in my forties and
no spring chicken, tennis doesn’t come quite as easy as it once
did for me. Back pain, muscle pain, lead feet, a few extra years,
and a few extra pounds have slowed me down considerably. I was
never a gazelle to begin with but now it feels sometimes like
I’m carrying a piano on my back when I making my way around the
court. Not a pretty sight. Nevertheless, I still love the game and
even venture out into a few tournaments now and then.
Such was the case last week as I
sent my entry in to the Indiana State Open over in Terre Haute.
Not knowing what to expect from the competition, I thought I
needed some kind of an edge mentally as I prepared to do battle.
When I got to our local bookstore, I headed over to the
“sports” section to see what they had on tennis. It didn’t
take long before I noticed a book that had my name all over it. It
was entitled, “Winning Ugly”. Bingo! That’s me. I want to
win and, at this point, I know it’s probably going to be ugly.
The book’s author, Brad
Gilbert, coaches one of the world’s most successful tennis
professionals, Andre Agassi. More importantly, however, is that
Brad himself was one of the top players in the world for over a
decade. During that time he earned the reputation for being one of
the seemingly least talented players on the men’s tour yet one
of its most consistent champions. Brad’s game was never confused
with the classic, almost effortless styles of such tennis greats
as Sampras, Laver, Becker, or McEnroe. His was a style that,
according to his book, evoked comparisons with “a caveman who
found a tennis racket.” Not particularly flattering.
But far overshadowing Brad’s
“caveman” reputation was the unanimous recognition among his
peers that he was a winner. His performance many times did not
seem to justify it, but nevertheless Brad turned out to be a
champion. And that is the bottom-line of “Winning Ugly”: You
do not have to have the prettiest, best-looking tennis game to end
up a winner. In fact, you can win and frequently look ugly doing
it.
Do you ever feel like there is no
hope for you with God because of your ugly performance? Do you and
others see you as nothing much more than a “caveman” trying to
play a saint’s game? Friend, you may not be the best performing
Christian in your church, in your neighborhood, or in your home
but if you are in Christ by faith, you are a winner as well. Maybe
not on the tennis court like Brad but certainly in life and for
all eternity. You may not feel like a winner. You may at times act
like anything but a winner. Your friends, family, co-workers, and
fellow church members may not see you as resembling anything close
to a winner. But in Christ you are, not based upon your
performance but because you are trusting in His!
It should not surprise you that
not everyone lives life as a child of God in the most flattering
of ways. Many of us experience tremendous frustration and failure
in our attempts to perform as “Christ-like” as others. What
seems to be so effortless for some is like trying to eat soup with
a fork for us. And let’s be honest here. All of us in Christ, to
some degree, win ugly. Maybe that is what makes the cross of Jesus
Christ in many ways so beautiful. It puts us all in the same boat.
It levels the playing field. It shows none to be righteous through
their performance. It reveals all to be losers in Adam. Yet it
turns right around and offers the winner’s check to all who are
in Christ!
In the game of Life you have won.
It may be ugly, but you and I have won. Not because we have been
the best performers but because our hope is in the eternal
Champion. His victory is yours and it cannot be taken away from
you. You and I have won not because of our moral performance but
because of His finished performance through the cross.
And, THAT is not winning ugly. . .
I’m sad to report,
however, that my performance in the tournament at Terre Haute was
ugly at best. I was
grateful that when they posted the tennis match scores on the
scoreboard and in the newspaper at the end of the day, nobody knew
how gruesome my 6-3, 6-4 victory really was. There was no record
or description of how clumsy, knuckleheaded, or embarrassingly
slow I had performed as I lumbered around the court. All that the
results showed was that I came out a winner. Would I like to hit
the ball better, move more fluently, make more first serves, and
do a better job of maintaining my composure during the match?
Absolutely. And hopefully next time I will. But the bottom-line is
that although there was ugliness, victory is mine because He
has given it to me!
But
when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this
mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the
saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O
DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The
sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks
be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ
(1 Corinthians 15:54-57).
Do you think that someday you
will achieve some semblance of perfect Christian performance? Do
you honestly believe that there will come a day that you won’t
miss a forehand, blow an overhead, double-fault on your serve, or
fail to retrieve every drop shot? I ask you to think again. As
hard as you try and as good as you perform, there will always be
someone who will outdo you. And then someone will outdo them. And
so it goes. . . But no one will ever outdo the righteous
requirements of the law. That righteousness has to be given to us
as a gift (Rom. 7:3-4).
Look at the apostle Paul. This
man struggled, did he not (Romans 7)? What could speak more
honestly to the common plight of all men still stuck in
this body of death than Paul’s anguish over “for that which I
am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I
would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate” (Rom.
7:15). This is Paul! Have you been there? Are you there today?
Join the club of which even Paul is a member. We all, to some
degree, live lives that fall under the same painful
heading…UGLY! But if our hope is in Christ, we stand before the
Lord a winner. Folks let’s start being kind, merciful, and
loving toward one another. Will not you and others benefit from
these things? Of course you will. But the foundation and the
motivation to act in this manner is first knowing and believing
that your victory is already secured.
For many of us, if not in
fact all of us, we live life on this earth winning ugly. Jealousy,
bitterness, lust, anger, self-righteousness, pride, gossip,
partiality, ad infinitum all plague us to one degree or another.
Some hide the struggle very well, while others seem to have ugly
written all over everything they say and do. Saints, there are
going to be times and seasons that, while you and I are very much
winners, our attitudes, actions, and deeds will seem to reflect
anything but. We’ll get angry with our spouses, we’ll bark at
the kids, we’ll gossip about our neighbor, we’ll entertain
thoughts about that attractive co-worker, and so on and so on.
Ugly stuff! Will there be consequences in our relationships with
one another because of these choices? You better believe it. But
such unprofitable behavior does not remove our names from God’s
winners circle. We have already won because we are in Christ.
So what do we do when we can’t
seem to get from one side of the court to the next without
stumbling over and scraping ourselves up? We start by remembering
that our hope, our confidence, and our peace is not in how we hit
the ball but in what the scoreboard says next to our name. And it
declares us winners, conquerors, and victorious in Jesus Christ
(Romans 8:31-39)! All our needs have been met in Him. The law and
the power of sin have no authority over you and me. We have been
made right and acceptable with our Father through the work of His
Son.
Dear friend, renew your mind on
the pillars of the gospel and place your confidence there. Your
hope is exclusively in Him - not in yourself and your ability to
perform nor in others and their ability to perform. You have been
set free from those expectations of yourself and others. It is
time to rest in the love of God for you demonstrated at the cross
centuries ago. And as you do, don’t be surprised if much of the
ugliness you’ve been struggling with for years is replaced with
the beautiful fruit of the Spirit.
Friend,
none of us want to win ugly, but just like on a tennis scoreboard,
a win is a win. And you, dear saint, have won in Christ! |
