Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Matthew 6:21
I just finished watching the end of the Men’s Final at Wimbledon. In my opinion, Wimbledon is the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world.
This match will go down as arguably the best tennis match in history. As espn.go.com reported the match lasted over 5 hours, was interrupted twice for rain and finished in near darkness as the two opponents played past 9:00 pm local time for the first time in Wimbledon Finals history. With the play and rain delays, the match lasted over 7 hours.
The competition was so even that in the fifth and final set the players had to play more than the normal amount of games. At Wimbledon the man who wins three sets first (best of 5 set match) wins. In sets one through four if both players win six games, a seven point tie breaker is played to determin a winner of that set, but in Set #5 the tie breaker is removed and if both players win six games they continue to play until one of the players has a two game advantage over the other.
Rafael Nadal bested Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7. Rafael Nadal ended Roger Federer’s chance to win a sixth straight Wimbledon title and Nadal became the first man in twenty eight years to win Wimbledon and the French Open in the same year.
Rafael Nadal won. Roger Federer didn’t lose. These two men poured out the hearts and sole into their profession, their game, their love. They played to their strengths. Federer went for big points with power and tenacity while Nadal played his defensive style returning virtually every ball that he could get his racket on.
As I watched, I kept asking myself if I possessed the amount of desire for anything in my life as much as Nadal or Federer had for that tennis match? Do I posses the same amount of desire that either of those two men had to win Wimbledon?
Wimbledon, a two week tennis tournament with the best tennis players in the world. A desire to play day in and day out for two weeks to earn the right to participate in the finals. A desire after two weeks of intense and grueling physical and mental exhaustion, a desire to fight and to fight and to continue to fight until you win or lose. The outcome is never guaranteed. It is never certain.
Mind you, both Nadal and Federer are multimillionaires. They were both financially set for the rest of their lives before this year’s Wimbledon. Neither were playing for money. If either one of them were, he would have quit and the world would have never witnessed this great match.
Do I have that kind of desire, passion for anything? If all my family’s monetary needs were met for my generation and the next, if John’s education were financially assured, if Jennifer didn’t have to work and the stress of budgeting the household were removed, can I honestly say I would have the desire and passion the likes of what I saw today?
The answer is yes.
Jesus placed a desire and a passion in my heart for ministry, for people. LifePoint is my desire for my life and my family, but more importantly than my desire, is what Jesus desires.
LifePoint is God’s desire.
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer didn’t just show up two weeks ago and say they wanted to win Wimbledon. They trained, they practiced, they trained some more, they practiced some more and they earned the right to be invited to play in the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament.
Jesus has invited me to lead LifePoint. I have trained, I have practiced, I have trained some more, and I have practiced some more. I thank God each and everyday that He has placed this desire in my heart, because without HIS desire I would have given up a long time ago. If I had quit, I would never been able to see LifePoint start, grow and become all that Jesus intends for us to be.
The outcome is never guaranteed. It is never certain. Paul wrote of this in 2 Corinthians 5:7.
