One of my indelible memories of childhood (or teenagerhood, at least) is a conversation with my father about tennis racquets. I wanted some expensive racquet and, it seemed to me, that he did not understand how important this was to me at all. Actually, it was typical youthful nonsense and I did not need the racquet.
Still, racquets do matter, we are told. Non-tennis players think this foolish, but we tennis guys "demo" racquets and will pay a lot of money for a racquet. People become obsessed with some new racquet and can't wait to get one, thinking it will make them a great tennis player. Golfers are the same with new drivers, new irons, and new putters. The reality is that we are who we are and there is no club that hits a shank any better than our old one does.
Anyway, I was playing tennis last night and broke a string on my racquet, with the result that I had to use an old racquet with which I have not played in 14 months or so. It was amazing how different everything was with the old racquet. Every hit felt different, because it had different strings and was strung at a different pressure and weighed less than my current racquet. I could serve really well and volley okay, but my groundstrokes were terrible.
I have played tennis since high school. You would think that "any racquet" would be good enough, but, in fact, every racquet is different. Even such a little change makes a big difference in the experience.
I think we need to keep this in mind when we make changes in any area of life, but especially in churches. Every change that you see as small (as my father saw the racquet issue) is actually much bigger than you think it is. Changing from one set of songs to another or from one "room arrangement" to another seems small to you, but it may seem big to someone else. Just a little thing can make such a big difference in the experience.
As teachers and as preachers and as brothers and sisters in Christ, we must be aware of how big a difference even little things can make in the lives of those we love. And, of course, as Christ instructed us, we love them all.
Don't we?
Still, racquets do matter, we are told. Non-tennis players think this foolish, but we tennis guys "demo" racquets and will pay a lot of money for a racquet. People become obsessed with some new racquet and can't wait to get one, thinking it will make them a great tennis player. Golfers are the same with new drivers, new irons, and new putters. The reality is that we are who we are and there is no club that hits a shank any better than our old one does.
Anyway, I was playing tennis last night and broke a string on my racquet, with the result that I had to use an old racquet with which I have not played in 14 months or so. It was amazing how different everything was with the old racquet. Every hit felt different, because it had different strings and was strung at a different pressure and weighed less than my current racquet. I could serve really well and volley okay, but my groundstrokes were terrible.
I have played tennis since high school. You would think that "any racquet" would be good enough, but, in fact, every racquet is different. Even such a little change makes a big difference in the experience.
I think we need to keep this in mind when we make changes in any area of life, but especially in churches. Every change that you see as small (as my father saw the racquet issue) is actually much bigger than you think it is. Changing from one set of songs to another or from one "room arrangement" to another seems small to you, but it may seem big to someone else. Just a little thing can make such a big difference in the experience.
As teachers and as preachers and as brothers and sisters in Christ, we must be aware of how big a difference even little things can make in the lives of those we love. And, of course, as Christ instructed us, we love them all.
Don't we?