This morning I woke up out of a deep dream. I was playing tennis with Novak Djokovic. Yes, the world’s best tennis player right now. We were in an enclosed court with a tall black fence all around us. We weren’t playing per se, or volleying back and forth. Rather, we were serving the ball to one another. When Novak served, his balls often went over my head and got caught in the fence. My serves tended to curve to the left. For some reason, I was winning the serves.
When it was my last serve, which I didn’t know that it was going to be my last time, I approached the line. Bouncing the ball twice, I was getting ready to hit it, but instead, I let the racket swing down. Like a fake swing. From the corner of my eye, I saw Novak shift and move side-to-side. He readied back into position, and I bounced the ball again, once this time, and hit it. It curved to the left again. I was hoping it would land in the center of the box on the other side of the net, but it touched down in the upper-left-hand corner of the box, instead.
Novak returned the serve, and the ball flew out of bounds over my head, falling behind me. As I turned around to retrieve the ball, a woman with a ponytail and dressed in white tennis apparel approached me. She was all smiles. The court suddenly brightened, and she congratulated me on winning. I wasn’t shocked or surprised, but I thanked her anyway. It was then I noticed a couple of people folding a dark gray canopy off of the net. It’s one of those canopies or coverings on a patio set, at least that’s what it looked like to me. I realized the challenges of my serves and Novak’s serves were a result of that canopy hovering over the net.
Novak Djokovic ran up to me and congratulated me as well, and then he hugged me. My last thought in his embrace was … “I didn’t break a sweat.”
As I think of this dream and what I can glean from it, is that I had the assurance of winning, thus, not breaking a sweat or fretting about it. I felt peace. Novak is a good representation of the world, hitting back at me, and making me run for the ball all over the court. And the canopy can represent God’s hand in everything. He removes the darkness, He removes the pains, He removes our sorrows, etc.
So today, rest assured that whatever you do, God’s got this. Our job is to show up and serve, using our gifts for His glory. So, don’t break a sweat.
Until next time. Be well. Be safe. Be happy.
