Unforced errors

When you watch a pro tennis match on TV, sometimes you'll hear the commentators refer to the players' "unforced errors." That refers to those times when greatly skilled players mess up on relatively easy shots. The ball goes into the net when the player was simply trying to get it back in play. Or there's a missed overhead that should have been a put-away. Or the ball sails long or wide, when the whole court was open. Tennis players get upset about a lot of things: double faults, bad line calls, broken strings. But nothing bugs them as much as "missing the easy ones."

In his book The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated, Jeffrey A. Krames uses this tennis analogy to address career and business issues. We might also think about this in terms of our Christian witness. Sometimes we can make the stupidest mistakes! Like when we're driving the car with kids in the back seat, and we fly off the handle at another driver. Or when, at the office, we are more concerned about "getting ahead" than in making the right moral choice. Or when we forget to take the time to give thanks to God and reflect again on the life-inspiring Word. Or when we sense a crisis in a friend's life and we don't offer spiritual support.

The "unforced error" can be very costly in tennis. Likewise, in our Christian faith-sharing.