Tennis, Anyone?

I played tennis today for the first time this year. I am now 2 for 2 on days exercising! It was a beautiful spring day out there, but I sure was rusty on the tennis court. It is amazing how your skill level can deteriorate when you are out of practice. My serve was weak and wimpy, my shots were errant, and my court coverage and reaction times were pathetic. But, as the match went on, everything improved. My serve got better, I hit some good shots, and even ran down a tough ball or two. Hopefully the weather will stay nice, and I'll be able to play more and continue to shake off the rust.

It's funny that there are a lot of things in life like what I just described: your proficiency decreases and your skills atrophy, but with some effort, everything starts coming back. "It's like riding a bike." Or playing an instrument, or knitting, or doing Sudoku, or juggling, or speaking in public, or calculus, or any number of other things. If we don't use it, we lose it, but we can get it back.

I think our faith is like this sometimes. We drift away from God and really just kinda forget what it means to walk in the Way of Jesus Christ or be led by the Holy Spirit. But our God is a God of second (and third and fourth...) chances, always more ready to welcome us back than we are to return. So, if you're reading this and you feel like you have wandered away from God or you haven't been to church in awhile or you've stopped your efforts to stay in love with God through spiritual disciplines, take heart! These things are like playing tennis (or riding a bicycle): they come back to you more easily than you might think. It may be a little awkward at first, but pretty soon you'll get the hang of it again and everything will be coming up aces!