I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.] — John 16:33, Amplified Bible

Tennis is a difficult sport to master. I know from personal experience, floundering horribly in the sport for years until I finally learned the game well enough to play collegiately.

As with just about any sport where a little round ball is involved, good hand-to-eye coordination is an essential requirement to be any good at the game. Or, so I thought. In 1984, a 15-year old Japanese high schooler named Miyoshi Takei decided that blindness would not stop him from mastering the game of tennis. He designed a foam ball, slightly larger than a normal tennis ball, that was filled with metal beads that rattle on impact. The rattling sound enabled him to locate the ball with his sense of hearing, and thus was born the game of Blind Tennis. Since its creation, Blind Tennis has become a hugely popular sport for the visually impaired in Japan and other Asian countries. The sport has recently come to the United States, and I expect it will soon find its way across the continent.

It is amazing what difficulties the human spirit can overcome! The human spirit, however, cannot long prevail against the spiritual difficulties that plague mankind. Sure, a persistent, diligent person can buck spiritual adversity temporarily. But such a person is like a man adrift in the ocean without boat or float. For a time he will be able to tread water to keep his head in the air, but eventually his strength will fail him and the ocean will consume him.

Tribulation, trials, distress and frustration will find us in this life. If we face these enemies alone, we will drown. If we face them with Christ, we will have peace. Even the strongest individual has a breaking point, and all of the human spirit in the world will fail when that breaking point is reached. Christ has no breaking point, and when we hide behind Christ, the frothy waves of adversity crash powerlessly against the sturdy seawall that is our Savior.

Adversity comes in many forms, but we need not fear any of them. Christ has already deprived the world of the power to harm us through His finished work on the Cross. All we need do is grab hold of the triumphant hand of our Savior, and then we, too, will overcome the world!