Just This Point

Fall brings memories of crisp blue skies, a chill in the air, and sitting beside tennis courts watching our daughters play high school tennis.  When our oldest daughter, Emily, started playing, she came up against one of the most challenging parts of  the game and the most challenging of all competitive sports…the mental game.    Having held a racquet since she could walk, she was quite comfortable and natural out there on the courts.  She quickly learned though that matchplay had another whole dimension to it and involved much more than just hitting the ball.  The mental game lies at the heart of each match and requires another set of skills above and beyond the physical aspects of hitting smooth nice strokes. 

A tough mental game is critical in those tougher game situations when the stakes are high and the heart starts pounding.  She adopted a mantra that she used to calm her body and mind:  “Just this point”.  She found that if she only thought of the current point she was in, she could play to her potential and not let fear take over….fear of the last point she may have lost or the next point that she was “supposed” to win.  This fear is like a fog that clouds the mind and blocks us from the light.  There is a “zone” that many players find themselves in when they practice this “inner game” of tennis. We can refer to this as a zone of light and when we are in it, we can shine and be all that we were meant to be. 

 Emily also came to a realization that this approach can be used off the court as well in daily life.  She found herself in a challenging test situation and thought, “Just this problem”.  She was worrying about getting homework done in numerous subjects and thought “Just math first”.  There were times when she needed to go somewhere but someone started talking to her and she thought “Just this person”.  Really, if we can embrace this mantra for every one of our days and say “just this moment”, we would truly be living in the present…God’s “present” to us.