Volley to a Million

I am not competitive. At all. I am also slightly easily distracted. Today, I played a bit of tennis with a friend of mine. Thankfully, he is not competitive either. He is also slightly easily distracted. So we played a game that would keep both of our attentions, but would not require any competitive spirit whatsoever. 

I’m sure you’ve played it. It’s the game where you volley the ball back and forth and see how many times you can before the ball hits the net. 

The first time we only made it to three. The next time we made it to twenty-two. Then it started to get exciting. I told my friend, “Let’s make it to 32!” When we got to thirty-two we both said, “Hey! Now let’s keep going until we get to 42!” It seemed that every time we made it past our original goal, we would get excited and raise the bar again. After we had beaten a goal, it seemed disgraceful not to make it farther. 

Our bar had been raised, our standards had increased and we wanted to do better every time. 

Unfortunately, there were still plenty of times we did not reach that standard…we would still too often get only three volleys when our goal was one hundred. But that didn’t stop us – even if we didn’t beat our goal every time, we would still try again. 

As we were playing I thought about God and the bar he has raised for us Christians. How that everyday we must try to live up to his standard. 

It’s like trying to volley to a million!

He has set up this standard for us – given us this perfect example of a human being – and that is what we have to try to achieve. 

Impossible.

Thankfully, God knows that we are not capable of reaching that particular goal – but he only asks us to try. He wants us to get up every morning and begin our game of volleying the ball back and forth – doing the best we can. 

We may get to 100, maybe we’ll only get 32….and heck, some days we’ll barely make it to three before the ball drops. But you know what? 

At least you tried. 

Now, you can try to beat your previous record each day! (It’s addicting, trust me…)

The thing we cannot do, is look at the court next to us and say, “Hey, they’re not playing at all today…why do I need to be out here then?” 

No. God does not call us to live according to the World’s Standards. He calls us to live according to HIS Standards. 

“Stop fooling yourselves. If you think you are wise by the world’s standards you will have to become a fool so you can be wise by God’s standards.”

~ 1 Chronicles 3:18