Joyful Transformation

Last night I played a grueling tennis match. We played close to two hours and the humidity was about 108%. Needless to say there was a lot of sweating involved. We were playing against a team that cheated! I hate to say that but it is the truth. If a ball came anywhere near the line they called it out! At the end of the first set (we lost 6-4) I told my partner I just didn’t care anymore this was no longer any fun. She agreed with me totally. We went into a quiet mode while the girls we were playing were goofy-silly-crass acting. Now if you know me, you know I love to have a good time but this was ridiculous. Anyway we quickly fell to 4-1 in the second set. Then I won my serve it was 4-2, but still I didn’t care. Then we broke their serve and it was 4-3… “hey” we said to each other “let’s beat them”. So we did 7-5. In this league that means that we had to play a third set. In the whole match we made one call that was “retribution” where the ball was near the line and we called it out. But something deep inside of me just wouldn’t let me do it more than the once. While we probably got 10 to 15 bad calls and 5 or 6 more that were questionable, we played it straight up! You know what? We won the third set 6-3 and therefore the match! Even if these “ladies” were playing good tennis do you think that is what we would remember? No! All we will ever remember about playing against them is that they cheat! I am thankful that I was taught at an early age not to cheat! I am glad it went against my conscience to even make that one “close” call! I believe in giving the benefit of the doubt when I can.

In all of our dealings in life we will be remembered more for how “fair” we are than how “good” we are. Maybe next time I am tempted to “short-cut” something I will remember this!