Keep Trying

Dear Beloveds,

Charlie, my wonderful groom of over 30 years, is always sending me interesting and new things to read; articles he reads in the newspaper, journals, poems, and books; I am always delighted to learn new things with him and because of him. I wanted to share the latest tidbit that he shared with me; perhaps you have already heard of what I will share. It was an article in the New York Times about the graduation speech that Roger Federer gave to this year’s graduating class for Dartmouth College. As the article states, there are many unremarkable graduation speeches, even those given by some remarkable people; I have heard my share!

But this particular speech seems to have struck a collective chord in so many people with both its wisdom and veracity. I will quote the article who, in turn, quotes Federer:

“In the 1,536 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80 percent of those matches. Now, I have a question for all of you. What percentage of the points do you think I won in those matches?” (The answer was only 54 percent.) “In other words, even top ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play.’” He went on to say, “Even top ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play. The truth is, whatever game you play in life, sometimes you’re going to lose. A point, a match, a season, a job.”

I loved that wisdom! It resounded with me so heartily, and I can understand why it brought so much hope to so many people. We all pass through difficult seasons in our lives--you may be in one right now. How comforting to know that we do not need to just simply survive, but we can come out on top AND be better, victorious people-- even with losing half the time!

I hope that Federer’s words brought you as much hope and encouragement as they did for me. As Charlie reflected as we were discussing the article, it is a beautiful and reassuring reinforcement that truly, sometimes we win and sometimes we lose; but the key is to keep trying.

This is the same hope that God asks us to have in our lives and in our perspectives; to know that there will be good days and bad days, but that God will always and eternally be walking with us, through thick and thin, through all the wins and the loses, through good and bad days. And God is the God of hope.

So, on the days that we lose, I pray that we can remember to embrace both Federer’s math and wisdom- and remember that God is with us in all our wins and loses!

With great love for you,

Pastor Grace