Reflection on Wimbledon (from 27-6-10)

This week is a world famous suburb on the South side of the city of London, something remarkable happened. Something that has never been seen before, and in the aftermath since, people have claimed, will never be seen again.

A Frenchman and an American, John Isner, and Nicholas Mahut played a Titanic game of tennis, far outstripping anything that has ever been seen before and breaking almost every record in the books.

So far did they exceed the expectations, that the scoreboard on the courtside actually stopped working, as it had only been programmed to reach the maximum score of 47 all. By the end of the match, the comptetitors would have played no less than an additional 46 games.

Such a mammoth task was this, that on watching it, it was clear to see that every last ounce of strength was being sapped from these two men. But still they kept going, playing to see the sun set and time called on not just one, but two evenings.

Sometimes, perhaps we feel like we are at the end of our ropes. Like the situations we face and the worries that we come up against are like this meeting of tennis greats, never going to end. We can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, we can't seem to lift our eyes to even look for a spark of hope. Life can be hard, and sometimes perhaps we long to just be able to bury our heads in our arms and hope that it all goes away.

It can feel like it is taking everything within us to just keep our heads above the water.

Today, we are celebrate the baptism of a child, the welcoming of an individual into the life of the Christian faith. One of my favourite parts of the Anglican baptism service is the following 3 lines:

"Live as a disciple of Christ,
Fight the good fight,
finish the race, keep the faith."

This exhortation to the one we are welcoming into our fold is to keep and embrace the faith he is coming into, but not just that, but to continue in it, struggle through and finish with his faith intact.

This is what it means to be a follower of God. That we persevere. Pushing through limits that even we are unsure we are able to make. Going beyond the expectations of not only ourselves, but those who are watching on.

Thankfully, unlike those two men on the tennis courts, we are not left to push through alone. God has not abandonned us to fight the fight and run our race solo.

In Isaiah 40 it talks about how God is the one who restores the strength of the weary, that for those who hope in the Lord

"they will run and not grow weary, they walk and not grow faint"

This is the hope that we have. That even in our darkest of moments, when it feels like all is said and done, that we can look to the one who brings hope and refreshment in these situations.

May we all know this renewing side to the One who is the lifter of our heads and the refresher of our souls.