An audience of One

I recently began playing volleyball on Thursdays at a local church (not my own). It’s an open gym that I was invited to by someone I had met in the league I was in last fall. Last night I was sharply reminded of my tendency to get a bad attitude when I’m not doing well or when I’m annoyed with the performance of others around me. Generally one of two things happen when I play volleyball: either I rise to the level of the players around me or I sink to the level of those on my team. Last night was the latter and the result was a very bad attitude on my part. I was annoyed with myself for playing poorly and I was annoyed with an older couple on my team who kept making mistakes.

And then about halfway through, it hit me again. I play for an audience of One. I’m not there to impress my teammates or judge them. My play should be solely to glorify God. Sadly my attitude last night was not glorifying to God. I have mentioned in a previous post that I struggled with this and last night, it reared it’s ugly head once more. I began to pray and confess my attitude and ask God to help me be more Christ-like. I prayed that my focus would be on bringing glory to God not myself.

My team never won a game but I certainly had a valuable lesson impressed upon me once again. And that’s better than an undefeated evening of volleyball.