tennis tournament

The other day we met with the founder/owner of this tennis academy, Monsieur Moundir, and he told us all about his philosophies and beliefs around this academy. His desire is to help people in Morocco with the disciplines of tennis. The tennis academy attracts very wealthy families, and Moundir says that the rich help pay for the poor.

The tennis academy has great coaches and has produced many great tennis players. They frequently host tennis camps, and put on tournaments every Friday. This current tennis/English camp has several students who traveled from different countries and most of the students come from very wealthy families. These students get whatever they want and act however they want. The parents are engineers, large business owners, doctors, etc. and all of the students speak at least two languages, all but one. There is one eleven-year-old girl who speaks only Arabic. This girl is a local girl, and right now is the only person whose family could not afford tennis lessons. She is here on a full scholarship, and last Friday she took first place at the tournament, beating all these older teens who have had tennis lessons for years and can afford to get the best training and education.

I am reminded of a passage in the first chapter of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. "He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." Not that we should avoid wealth or wisdom, but that we should always remember how great God is compared to us, no matter how great our success becomes. If you are going to boast, if you are going to have any sort of pride, it should not be in anything of this world, but rather it should be in the Lord.

You should have seen that girl play. She is so aggressive, precise and fast. She is only a small girl, and she was beating boys that are years older than her, bigger, and have much more experience than her. It was a beautiful feat. And now we get to make fun of the boys she beat.

-jdh