It's been almost a year since I heard an interview with Billie Jean King on NPR. Short story is...Billie Jean King is a female tennis player, who in September of 1973 played against Bobby Riggs in a match that was billed as "The Battle of The Sexes". The pressure on Billie Jean was enormous. Bobby's triumph four months earlier over Women's World Tennis Champion Margaret Court in a televised match was being proclaimed as proof that men were superior to women as athletes. Held in the Astrodome, The Battle of the Sexes was a media spectacle...Bobby was escorted into the stadium by an entourage of women, Billie Jean was carried in on an Egyptian-style litter. Billie Jean HAD to win, and win well. Thirty-five years later, Billie Jean was sharing what she had learned in 1973. "Pressure is a Privilege" is the title of a book that Billie Jean King wrote reflecting on the "Battle of the Sexes". What she shared, got me to thinking...
It was in the winter of 1992 that I was first introduced to James. Oh, I'd always known he was there, tucked in between Hebrews and Peter, but most of what I'd learned from him before then dealt with the tongue. I was (o.k., AM), regularly convicted by James about my tongue (mouth) getting me into trouble. This time, the Lord, thru James, began to teach me something more.
James tell us in chapter one, verse twelve to "Consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete. Not lacking anything." Testing produces perseverance, perseverance makes us mature in Christ. I don't like to hear that the God I know as benevolent, allows the yuckiness of life to touch me, and then to use it for my benefit...like sandpaper gently reshaping me, or sometimes, like a chopsaw or bulldozer, radically changing my form. Through the years, I've hung on to the truth that God is producing perseverance in me. I do not think that perseverance has finished it's work, and now in my mid-thirties, I understand that I must still face many trials. I trust my Great God to continue reforming me into a more accurate image of Him.
What do my trials look like? Somedays, it's nothing more than a short temper. Others, or even for a season, it is deep grief over losing a loved one, or worry and fear over financial concerns, heartbreak over my babies. Unemployment. Coworkers. The chaotic life as a mother to 4 kiddos. Sometimes, it is "just" a weariness of the soul.
Thank you for the chaos. I trust You to use chaos to teach me discernment. Thank you for limited resources, for they cause me to lean more fully on You. Your resources are limitless. Thank you for the dry spells, They help me to remember that you alone are the living water. Thank you for the pressure. I trust You to use pressure to teach me that you continue to refine me with your Love.
At the conclusion of the interview, Ms. King was asked how her "Battle of the Sexes" had changed tennis for women. Her reply was that the "Battle of the Sexes" changed tennis. Her experience with Bobby Riggs had positive global impact for the entire sport. Likewise, our pressures, momentous or minute, have global impact. Yes, even global benefit.
