As Wimbledon progressed, a couple of friends asked me if I’d seen particular matches. I hadn’t, mostly because it was later in the tournament and I tend to tune out by then.
I should back up and say I’m an avid tennis fan. But I don’t have many favorite players at the top of the game anymore. So I find myself rooting for underdogs or comeback players in the early rounds.
How far would former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova go? I don’t think anybody expects the 33-year-old to make a deep run at majors anymore. She was attacked in her apartment in 2016 during a home invasion and the man sliced her left hand open (she plays left-handed). She lost the feeling in two of her fingers on that hand. Yet she’s still competing (and she even won Miami earlier this year).
How far would former champion Andy Murray go? He’s had two hip surgeries and the 36-year-old may be in his final year of competition. He lost an epic second-round, five-set battle to the fifth seed and says he’s not sure if he’ll play again next year.
Then there was Christopher Eubanks. The 27-year-old had an eye on the television booth, perhaps thinking he’d be retired soon (he’d never finished a year ranked higher than 123rd). Then he started to turn things around and pushed into the top 50, finally winning a tournament in Spain right before Wimbledon. Watching his Wimbledon run was worth it. He knocked out the twelve and five seeds before losing in the quarterfinals.
Everybody has a story to tell, and at this stage of my life, I’m most interested in hearing stories about people who will never reach the top (or never reach it again). I want to hear about the way people find motivation to keep fighting when life is difficult. And I’m not just talking about tennis.
John Piper preached a sermon about the theology of suffering in which he reveals the names of many Christians he’s known over the years who have died from cancer. In the sermon, he speaks about genuine gospel hope in light of our bodies wasting away (2 Corinthians 4:16) when he says, “There is coming a day when every crutch will be carved up, and every wheelchair melted down into medallions of redemption.”
I want to be inspired by stories like this one of a college freshman who read Flannery O’Connor’s “The Violent Bear It Away” and found a fresh vision of God’s grace, even during moments of tragedy or cruelty.
I want to hear about how Bob Dylan’s song “Gotta Serve Somebody” caused a friend of mine to think about who he was serving and how the Lord used it to offer him clarity.
Wimbledon has crowned its new champions for 2023 (Carlos Alcaraz on the men’s side and Markéta Vondroušová on the women’s side), but a year from now, only avid tennis fans will remember their victories. But we never forget the stories of people who touch our lives or change our perspectives.
