Whacking Tennis Balls

Four summers ago I received a vision of me on a tennis court. I was hitting the tennis balls way over the fence. Everyone around me was asking “what are you doing?” as if I was being a complete idiot and being wasteful and purposeless. But the vision was not over. The balls were landing at the feet of international children and international elderly people. The children began to play with the balls and the elderly people began to put the balls on their walkers.

I have been thinking about this vision a whole lot the past couple of weeks. I believe God has been teaching me some solid truths about walking in the Holy Spirit through this vision. I believe God at times calls us to do things which appear foolish and illogical. We may not understand why we are doing them, but we must trust that He is a purposeful God. He knows how we can show love and compassion for others in ways we would never imagine. And at times, people may yell at us because our actions look wasteful or ridiculous, but we cannot allow the confusion and the disbelief prohibit us from being obedient. If we hold back, those that need to receive from God will not get what we have to offer them.

Another metaphor that Lord has been playing over in my head came from a book by Bill Johnson called “Dreaming with God”. He speaks on how so many Christians often say how willing they are to do things for the Lord, but how God has not asked them to do so. They say, “I’ll move overseas, I’ll give my resources, I’ll get more involved in my community….if, God tells me”. He contrasted this with the Apostle Paul who was obedient to the Great Commission. He was called to go and he went. Sometimes he even desired to go more than where the Spirit was leading him. BUT in those times, he was listened and stayed and waited.

We as believers are called to GO, to DO, to SERVE, to GIVE, to PRAY, to LOVE. I think we as believers have a legitimate fear that if we do not go with the Lord’s calling, then we may fail. This leaves us not doing anything except waiting to hear God tell us in some booming voice. But the Apostle Paul responded to the voice in Matthew 28, and he did not fail because God directed him.

I think there is a lot of power in going and trusting. And I want to learn what that means. I want to learn to whack tennis balls and trust that they will make an everlasting impact. I want to pray prayers believing they will bring Heaven to Earth. I want to just show up and believe the presence of God in me will forever change the surroundings around me.

And I believe God is ready to teach me how to do just that! How about you? How are you responding to Matthew 28? How can you seek out areas to go and trust that God will direct you in your going?