rain delays

July 10, 2005

i watched the men's wimbledon championship match last sunday morning. it was a highly anticpated match between the first (roger federer) and second (andy roddick) seed players. roddick had a gruelling four set match the day before so it was understandable that his body didn't get a chance to rest much for the finals. federer, on the other hand, had at least one day off.

there was a noticeable difference in roddick's performance, granted he was playing against the number one player. roddick's serve is probably his deadliest weapon on the court. i remember watching him last year and being in awe of just how amazing his serve was. he reached something like 30 or 40 straights points on his serve—not an easy feat to accomplish. that's not to say he plays like that every match, but his service game is a force to be recokned with. this match was different. his first serve percentage was lower than average, his top speed for his first serve was lower than average, and he won a lot less points on serve. it seemed like the match would be over quickly. he had few opportunities to win games.

at the end of the second set, there was a rain delay. the commentators said that this would be a great time for roddick to get refocused and change his strategy. they were saying how there's not much his coach could say to make him play better physically, but rather, that he should say something to motivate him spiritually, emotionally and mentally. the rain delay only lasted for about 15 minutes before the match resumed.

when roddick stepped back onto the court, he was a new man. his game significantly improved, in all aspects: his service game was better, and he was making better shots, and smarter plays. the commentators noticed it too. unfortunately it wasn't enough to win the match. federer was simply too dominating, but that's besides the point.

what i took away from watching that was how necessary and vital taking breaks are. and that's the point of this entry. we live in a go-go-go society, where demands are high and time is short. we kill ourselves working as hard as we can to earn that extra dollar or to get to that higher position. we'll burn the midnight oil, sacrificing a few hours or maybe even a day or a few day's of sleep. we'll skip out on meals so we can push to hand in a report on time. we'll miss time with family/friends to attend night meetings. and while this mentality is true for corporate america, it's also true for so many of us living the day-to-day. we've somehow believed the lie that time is money. it's all about do, do, do. down time is wasted time. if you're not doing something, you're not getting anywhere. we believe that progress only comes from action.

that's the culture we live in. if you're a student, every summer you'll be hit with the same question, "what are you doing this summer?" for those who are working/studying/volunteering, there's no problem answering. but for those who haven't found jobs or who aren't planning on doing anything, shame or guilt may be the emotion that comes along with their answer. they may feel like they aren't being productive or simply wasting time. even for those who consciously decide to relax and take a break (like myself), the mounting pressure of needing to do something still remains.

if we continue down this road (that most of our western society travels down), our destination will be burn out/break down. sure, we might have achieved our goals/dreams or even earned that extra dollar, but at what expense? at what cost? let me ask you this. how are your relationships like? what's your health like? are there others parts of your life that have suffered? was it really worth it? if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. stress has a way of manifesting itself in the body, sometimes in very unpredictable ways. and if you're not careful, if you continue to live the high-paced, high-stress, no break lifestyle, you are a very likely candidate for a big crash.

we need to realize that sometimes the best thing we could do for ourselves and others is to simply rest, to take a break. in our busyness, we forget the much needed benefits that breaks provide. it seems backwards doesn't it? that in order to improve our efficiency, performance, focus, we do not engage in more work, but rather in less work, in that we take a break from it all. so how exactly does that work? what does a break give us?

1. a chance to refocus
more often that not, the best way to solve a problem is to step away from it, not to keep pushing at it. by continually doing something, we develop tunnel vision?we only see things in a certain way. we may even realize that we've been doing the wrong thing the entire time. maybe we didn't pay attention to our objective when we started off or as time passed, we simply loss sight of the goal. we need breaks to give us time to refocus on the right things. in our culture, it's so easy to be pulled by the things of this world. after all, we are bombarded with media messages and images every day to buy this or that, be this or that and do this or that. we need to step back and let God whisper over us what truly matters?Him. i wrote an entry about this called "losing focus" back in december 2004.

2. a chance to reenergize
you cannot give what you do not have. a common misconception lies in the fact that if we keep pushing ourselves, we'll be able to make our goals/deadlines. we think that staying up that extra hour or two is better than going to bed and waking up early. what we don't realize is that our body only has a set amount of energy. if we use up all that energy, our performance, efficiency and focus degrades, so what may have taken one hour to complete, now takes three hours to complete. reenergizing is also key in our relationships. when we are drained, we become ill-tempered: quick to react, quick to become angry. the people around us suffer. the more we push our bodies, the more drained we become. and if we don't recharge, we won't have many friends around us. who wants to spend time with people that snap at them all the time? how can we love others if we keep yelling at all the time? how can we reflect Christ like that? finally, we must remember that there is only so much we can do on our own strength. we are limited human beings. God is limitless. His strength knows no bounds. nothing is too hard or impossible for Him. God is the God of the possible. it's only through His strength that we can accomplish things that will really make a difference in this life.

3. a chance to restrategize
maybe our plans didn't work out the way we hoped for. perhaps we didn't account for life to happen. if we don't take the time to develop a new approach, we'll still go at it with our old strategy in mind. we'll always be in crisis mode. crisis mode is never a good place to be because you're reacting instead of anticipating and you're following instead of leading. you let life happen instead of taking it and making it yours. or maybe our plans did work out, but they weren't the best course of action to take. taking a break lets us evaluate where we're at and lets us make adjustments (if necessary) to where we want to go. at the same time, sometimes it's a blessing when our plans don't work the way we wanted. maybe we left God out of the picture and He's trying to get our attention. maybe God is trying to show us that He's got a much better plan in store for us that what we saw. God knows best. He knows the best way to go, the best way to about doing something.

Jesus always rested after He worked. after He fed the five thousand, He didn't stay around to chat, but instead, He went to a mountainside by Himself so that He could pray (see matt 14:13-23). if you think about it, after that miracle, Jesus could have stayed around and preached to the people. the Bible doesn't say the demographics of the crowd, whether or not they were all followers of Him. but i highly doubt that they were all believers. so why didn't He stay around and tell them about the wonderful love of God? He understood the importance of taking breaks and how necessary it was. i think He knew that sometimes the best thing to do is not work, but rest.

work will always be there. it's not going to suddenly disappear and take off. but people won't. circumstances won't. we won't. i've been on break ever since school finished. it's been a great time. i had a really hard time adjusting to it at first, thinking that i was wasting time. but i've really learnt to see how sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves and others is to take a break. and more importantly, sometimes our best service to God is not by doing, but by being, by sitting, by waiting, by resting at His feet and letting His gentle voice whisper over us.

like andy roddick, all of us could use some rain delays.

"come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" - matthew 11:28 [NIV]

Posted by Leo Chan at July 10, 2005 3:51 PM