Federer v. Nadal On a Sunday Morning…WWJD?

My wish had been granted. Roger Federer and Raphael Nadal were set to square off in a highly anticipated Wimbledon final. Just a few weeks ago, the world’s two best players competed in the French Open final, where Nadal continued his dominance on clay and his surprising success against Federer.

No one expected a rematch at Wimbledon though. After all, Nadal is a clay court specialist who has demonstrated brilliance on the red surface, but has proven to be a simple Joe Schmo on the green grass. However, Nadal now had the chance to pull off an upset by beating Federer on his surface. Federer, on the other hand, had the chance to avenge his loss at the French and make up ground in his lifetime series with Nadal who had won six of the seven matches between the two. A win would also have been Federer’s fourth straight Wimbledon championship and further cemented his name as one of Wimbledon’s all-time greats and moved him closer to the title of “greatest of all-time.”

Clearly, the match-up was everything a tennis fan like me could ask for. But, it was the worst thing that could have happened to a Christian like me. You see, the match was scheduled for a Sunday morning. That’s right, I was expected to choose between going to church like a good Christian and witnessing the world’s two best tennis players play on the historic and mystic Centre Court at the All-England Club of Wimbledon.

If the match was truly great, I knew it would be shown on ESPN Classics rather soon. I could’ve simply waited until then to watch. I also could’ve taped the match and watched it when I get home from church. I knew both solutions would undoubtedly fail though. Either I would miss the replay or I’d find out the result before I had the chance to watch the recording. The same happened with last year’s French Open final when, after hearing me say how excited I was to watch the replay of the match, a friend blurted out, “Why? Nadal already won.” I still haven’t forgiven him. I’m also against the idea of taping the match because no one tapes anything anymore. It would be so 90’s to tape record the match. TiVo is the cool way to do it, and I simply don’t have TiVo. Additionally, the thought of fast forwarding through commercials makes me want to throw up. It is even more difficult to rely on a replay or recording when your 70-year-old grandfather is the most obsessed tennis fan in the world. Although I know my Papa will be in church Sunday morning, I wouldn’t be shocked at all if his shouts of halleluiah had nothing to do with the pastor’s sermon, but were instead his expressions of joy from listening to a play-by-play of a magnificent point through an earpiece connected to a radio in his pocket. He’s that big of a fan. I simply couldn’t trust him to refrain from telling me who won.

I really had no other options. It was church or Federer vs. Nadal. I could only gaze to my navy and white WWJD bracelet and try to figure out exactly what Jesus would do. We know that Jesus is a fan of tennis. It is a sport so beautiful that, although there is no mention of it the Bible, we can definitely assume God made the sport during his week of creation. After 2,000 years, was it safe to also assume Jesus is sick of church? I mean, how long can he enjoy people gathering together to praise him and tell him how wonderful he is? I know for me the answer is 2,000 years. Moving on. My progressive/new age spiritual self told me Jesus wouldn’t mind at all as long as I set aside another day to rest and hangout with him. But, my fire and brimstone self told me if I don’t go to church, I’m going to Hell. Bottom line, I think Jesus would watch the match (no I don’t—but I couldn’t miss this match and, since I’m already missing church, a little white lie will mean nothing).

Okay so Jesus would watch the match, therefore, I decided to watch along with Him. I was hoping for a five-set marathon with the winner defeating the loser 31-29 in the fifth. Maybe I was asking for too much. Federer dominated from the very beginning winning 6-0 in the first set. Nadal was able to win a third set tie-breaker, but Federer prevailed in the fourth set. Federer’s 6-0, 7-6, 6-7, 6-3 victory gave him his fourth straight Wimbledon championship and sent a message to tennis fans that, although Nadal is an remarkable young talent, we are still living in Roger’s world.

As for me, I felt a little guilty once the match ended. In fact, I had even made up my mind to make it to the evening church service. That is until I realized my Detroit Tigers were on at 5:00…