What are you going to do?

June 27, 2016 | 8 comments

I learned a valuable spiritual lesson at a recent tennis lesson.

While learning to approach the net and put the ball away better, I missed a shot I should have gotten, and my coach asked, “What were you thinking about?” I told him that I was thinking about what he was doing. And he quickly rebuffed me with, “You’re not supposed to be thinking about what I’m doing. You’re supposed to be thinking about what you’re going to do!”

His instruction arrested my attention, for I quickly realized that many of the times I was caught flat-footed and not ready to hit the ball back in time were times when I was thinking about what the other player was doing rather than what I was going to do. And so when the ball got to me, I wasn’t ready to hit it back well, and I would miss hit.

As I’ve worked on paying more attention to what I’m going to do with the ball, rather than getting absorbed with what the other guy is doing, my tennis game has been rapidly improving.

And I found a lesson for life in this instruction.

Do you ever spend time worrying about what the other guy is doing instead of paying more attention to what you should be doing?

It happens in the workplace. One worker gets upset with another and spends all her time fussing and fuming about the other’s actions, instead of becoming an understanding heart that could bring healing to the situation. Or a family member acts inconsiderately and other family members spend time criticizing and judging rather than bringing the touch of love into the family environment and improving relations with compassion and care.

In working with other people, we have to note their thoughts and actions to be aware of consequences, but the bulk of our time and effort should be spent on our conduct. What are we doing? Are we responding with love and care? Do we have a healing response ready for whatever comes our way?

The more we pay attention to what we are doing, and less to the other guy, the more likely we’ll be in a healing state of mind that makes a positive difference. We won’t be caught flat-footed and issue callous knee-jerk responses that hurt and harm. We’ll be ready to respond with love and able to score far more positive points on the daily court of Life. It’s a winning strategy.

“Whoever wants to embrace life and see the day fill up with good, Here’s what you do: Say nothing evil or hurtful” I Peter 3:10, MSG.

8 thoughts on “What are you going to do?”

  1. “Let there be Peace on Earth and Let It Begin with Me”!!! Thanks, Evan, for reminding us to strive to have a Healing Response to whatever comes our way today! BTW……this Blog didn’t make it to my Inbox today, Mon. 6/27…but I went and found it on an old Blog that I saved. Anyone else having this problem? Suggestions, Evan…..???

    1. I did not receive today’s email either, nor a few days last week. As with you, Bevi, I just access it throuh a saved link.

      And thank you, Evan, for this reminder to be more aware of our thoughts every minute of every day.

    2. Hi Bevi,
      This one did not come into my inbox either. I had to look for it, as you did. It was an easy search though. I love receiving inspirations from SpiritView, as you do too.

  2. Last Wednesday and Thursday, my posts did not go out properly. So you are correct on that. For some reason, the post didn’t go out on Feedblitz today either. So, hopefully my problem will be fixed by tomorrow! Thanks for your patience.

  3. Didn’t come to me either, so I’m glad to see Evan’s post. Good to know SpiritView soon will be in my inbox as usual!

  4. All these religions are mortal man inventions that do nothing in bringing us nearer to God but rather drive us away from knowing our closeness to God and creates hatred, illness and death.
    C/S is not to be used to hide evil but bring the above truth to fruition and destroy you he hate that goes with it. This is what we should do rather than forgiving evil which we are now doing. The medical profession is under the false assumption that religious people are dangerous for they hear God telling humans to kill and destroy that which is good which is wrong.

    1. There are many religions doing much good in the world. There are extremists that give religion a bad name, but there are millions, and billions, of good people quietly doing much good because of the inspiration they receive from their religion. We mustn’t forget that!

  5. I love this post, Evan, as all your posts. But this one touches me in particular, as it deals with something I definitely have to get better at, to not be disturbed by others’ actions, but to rather think about what I have to do… Thank you so much for sharing your inspiration!

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