Tennis is a sport steeped in history and tradition. Rackets and balls have certainly evolved changed over the years, but many things about the sport have remained essentially the same since King Henry VIII built a court and whacked away at balls made out of leather and stuffed with hair.
Speaking of Henry, his second wife, Ann Boleyn, was said to have been watching a tennis match when she was commanded to appear before the Privy Council and subsequently marched off to the Tower of London. And Henry was allegedly playing tennis when he was told his wife had been executed.
Tennis has not been nearly so unlucky for my marriage over the years and I am a big fan. I watched a lot of it recently as the U.S. Open was on T.V. and I was surprised by a momentous change at this major tournament: the absence of human line judges to call balls in or out.
Line judges have now been replaced by Hawk-Eye, a computerized system which uses multiple cameras to precisely track shots. This system has been around for several years, but was used only when players appealed calls made by human line judges. In 2020 and 2021, Covid prompted tournament officials to “temporarily” replace line judges with Hawk-Eye, and this year, that change was made permanent.
For better or worse, on-court drama has been greatly reduced. Gone are the days of epic rants over line calls by feisty players like Ilie Nastase and John McEnroe. A human umpire still sits in a high, courtside chair to announce the score and settle other disputes, but now there’s no one for players to blame if they feel they’ve gotten a bad line call. What are they gonna do—scream at a computer?
Even the most notoriously argumentative players didn’t question the computerized system’s calls at this year’s Open. It was like they believe Hawk-Eye is infallible.
That makes me wonder this: If I believe God is infallible, which I do, why do I ever argue with Him about the calls He makes in my life? Why do I criticize what He does or allows? Why don’t I accept disappointments and get on with things, like I saw those tennis players do when their shots were called out by Hawk-Eye?
Job was a man who knew all about being disappointed—devastated, actually—by the calls God made in his life, but he was also a man God could brag on. In fact, that’s what God did when He challenged Satan with, ““Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.’”
After experiencing one horrendous calamity after another, Job was understandably struggling and asking questions. After allowing him to vent, God essentially whipped out His resumé, figuratively speaking, and asked Job the question we all need to consider when we start questioning and blaming God: “Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty?” (Job 40:2a)
A humbled Job eventually said, “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. … Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:2, 6).”
I can’t know for sure, but I bet Job’s personal encounter with God settled forever any questions he had about who was most qualified to call the shots in his life.
When a complaint or rant forms in my heart, may I remember that God sees what I can’t, knows what I don’t, and loves at a depth I can’t always comprehend.
He’s calling the lines and trusting Him removes a lot of unnecessary drama from my life.