CW Weekly Devotional - "Golf and Tennis Lessons" > Clemson Wesley

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Friday, October 26, 2007

CW Weekly Devotional - "Golf and Tennis Lessons"
By laneglaze @ 12:31 PM :: 159 Views :: 0 Comments ::

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
Psalm 139:7, NIV

The last sixty days have been a whirlwind for the Glazes. It seems like just yesterday that I sat down to write my last weekly devotional, but it was actually two months ago. Time sure flies by when you’re having fun…or when you have way too much going on!

Yes, these first few months of the school year will most likely be the craziest of the academic year for my family. My wife started her school year as a teacher, my daughters began new years in middle and high school, and I entered a new year of ministry to and with students at Clemson. On top of these new challenges, both my daughters have been playing fall sports. My oldest has been doing her magic on the tennis court while her sister has been teeing it up on the golf course, both representing Daniel High School. Their seasons finally ended earlier this week.

Unlike many of their peers, our daughters have not been too active in sports over the years. When they were younger, they both played soccer and took gymnastics lessons, but neither of them participated in travel teams that have become so popular for adolescents and teenagers in recent years. We were used to our girls having activities several days a week and rarely on the weekends. Last year all of this changed when they both began playing varsity sports.

This past summer and fall I spent much time with both of my daughters helping them to prepare for the field of play. These times of practice and preparation have been some of the most fun that we have had together since they were born. In practice, there is little to no pressure, and we’re free to talk, laugh and joke around between games or holes.

Their matches, however, have been the complete opposite - some of the most stressful times in recent years. Fans in most sports are free to cheer, scream or, if things get really heated, complain to the umpire or referee! Not so in tennis and golf, where proper etiquette, honesty, integrity and decorum are still valued. At my daughters matches, parents are expected to remain calm and keep distance from the field of play. And, unlike in most sports, players don’t rely on an impartial judge to decide the rules, they are expected to serve as referees for one another.

If I have learned anything over these last two seasons, it is this: it is much easier to play than it is to watch someone you love play. I now have a much deeper appreciation for the emotional rollercoaster that my parents endured as they watched my brothers and me play over a thousand games over the years. I have rarely felt so helpless during my adult years.

As I have tried to watch the ones that I love patiently from the sidelines these last two years, I now have better sense of how God must feel when God watches us "play" in the game of life.

Don’t you know that God must cherish those times when we are simply preparing and practicing, when we are in close conversation with our Heavenly Parent, even laughing and joking around on occasion? But don’t you also know that God’s heart must yearn and burn for us when we leave those Eden-like times to enter the real world, the field of play?

Living in the world can be so difficult, and it sometimes seems that God is on the sidelines keeping His mouth shut. And even for the most devout believers, there are times when it feels as if God is not even there for us at all. The Gospel, however, teaches us over and over again that the God that we worship and serve, the One who made and sustains us, is no absentee Parent at all. God is always there for us, during those times of practice and preparation and always when we enter the field of play. And while we may not sense God’s presence or hear His words of encouragement, God is there - cheering us on, celebrating the victories, and comforting us in defeat. As the Psalmist reminds us, there is nowhere that we can go to flee from God’s Spirit, God’s presence. Faithful to His promises, God is always there.

This past fall I have tried to support the ones that I love in this way as they have given it their all. To be honest, there were times when I was purposefully absent because I could not take the stress of being a parent who had to keep his mouth shut. It was during those times that the Holy Spirit began to convict me of how different my love and actions as a parent were compared to God’s.

Thank you, God, for never abandoning or foresaking us. Thank you, God, for ALWAYS being there, each and every day.

Learning new lessons daily,
lane

Rev. C. Lane Glaze
Director, Clemson Wesley Foundation
Campus Minister, Clemson UMC
P.O. Box 1703, Clemson, SC 29633
(864) 654-5547 (o); (864) 207-9135

www.clemsonwesley.com

Feel free to forward this email to a friend. The Clemson Wesley Weekly Devotional is a ministry of the Clemson Wesley Foundation, the United Methodist Church’s ministry to students on the campus of Clemson University. The purpose of this email is to look at issues relevant to the life of Clemson students through the lens of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you would like your name added to this list, email Rev. Lane Glaze at glaze@clemson.edu.

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