Tennis Ain't Everything...

So the other night I went up to the New Student Orientation Retreat, held at a Conference Center in the San Bernardino Mountains. I was lying on my back looking up at the stars (something you can't do in the city) and I realized, "dang there are alot of stars of up there." And i got me to thinking... the God who put those up there did it for me- just because he loves me. And I realized at that moment, that there is more than winning and losing tennis matches. It's not as if that was a new revelation; however, I think I lost site of it over the past year. When it's all said and done, everyone finishes at about .500- meaning you'll win as many as you'll lose. And in 100 years, no one is going to look back and say, "I remember the time he won that tennis match..." They will look back and remember only that "he was a man of God." To me, If I had to choose between being the best tennis coach in the history of all of the tennis coaches or being a man of God, I would choose the latter. That's not to say you couldn't be both... And now back to the stars... there were literally thousands of stars visible that night. But there was only one REALLY bright star. And no matter where my eyes wandered to in the sky, they always tracked back to that one bright star. And this should be one of the characteristics of our relationship with Christ- that in the midst of thousands of things vying for our attention, we always turn back to Him. He is the brightest star in the sky. If he is not, let me ask you who (or what) is? And then let me ask you this, is it worth it? When it's all said and done, what are you going to be defined by?

Knowing God

I just wanted to leave you with some words from C. H. Spurgeon:

It has been said by someone that "the proper study of mankind is man." I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God's elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.
There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, "Behold I am wise." But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumbline cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass's colt; and with solemn exclamation, "I am but of yesterday, and know nothing." No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God....

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe.... The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.

And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead's deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.

What is Farm Tennis?

Farm Tennis isn't anything special. My name is Chris Taylor. I am the Director of Tennis at California Baptist University, located in Southern California, about 45 minutes east of Los Angeles. Farm Tennis is very simple to be honest: tennis is my passion (second to my beautiful wife) and my grandparents farm in Athens, TX is my favorite place to be. Put the two together: Farm Tennis. And moreover, the farm to me is a place where we go to work, it's where things get done. So I hope we can get down to the business of tennis- specifically the business of winning... But you will have likely heard of everything I have to say, simply because "there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10). I don't portray to know anything more then the next coach (just about all that I have learned about this game has come from others who have mentored me in the past). I could possibly only expect that maybe in hearing it (or in this case reading it) in a different manner or perhaps just in a different context, maybe you can find some use for it. I welcome your comments (both from those who contentedly agree and those who vehemently disagree).