Who is making the call?

FOOT FAULT was the call. I was in the middle of a hotly contested tennis match and the only High school match I ever played that had line judges calling everything instead of the players. My own coach, my tennis mentor was one of the two line judges…and to make matters worse, I asked for the line judges, actually demanded them. You would have too. In our league we played each team twice during the season. In our first meeting with this team a few weeks earlier I lost to this same opponent. I use the word lost loosely. This opponent was the worst cheater I had ever encountered. It made no difference where the ball landed, if he needed the point he would just call the ball out! My dad was watching the match along with some other players so NO, it was not my imagination. I protested to the coach but as a team we were in no danger of losing the match so the coach decided to just let it go and I took the loss. It was not right but that’s just the way it was. The next time we played that team he started the same thing and I walked off the court. If I was going to lose anyway it would not be on the court! The two coaches decided to be the line judges themselves to avert what would likely have been a fight. With line judges making all the calls my opponent could not steal any point he needed. He was a pretty good player but the extra eyes began to unnerve him. The coaches were even calling foot faults…that is when you step over the line while serving the ball…His coach called it on him and my coach called it on me. The difference was his serve got weaker with every call and mine got stronger. Why? I had spent months during the summer hitting serves to the critique of my coach. The foot fault call was so familiar I just made the natural adjustment and served it harder confident the flaw had been corrected by my mentor. I had a relationship with my coach he did not have with his coach. The foot fault call to me just meant a slight correction in my starting spot, to him it was a condemnation of his serve. He totally fell apart.
Life in Christ is like that too. IF we live in a close, loving relationship and fellowship with the Father, the Holy Spirit will guide us with the occasional FOOT FAULT call. It will not feel like a condemnation or rejection, just a slight adjustment call that will bring us to victory. the shack discussion guide, the shack study guide