Running the Race with Purpose

On July 5, 1975, Arthur Ashe walked onto Centre Court at Wimbledon to face Jimmy Connors, the defending champion and overwhelming favorite. Connors was younger, louder, and had demolished opponents all tournament with raw power. Few gave the thirty-one-year-old Ashe a chance.

But Ashe had not come to London to simply participate. He had studied Connors for months, crafting a strategy with surgical precision. Instead of matching Connors' power, he fed him soft slices, dipping shots, and maddening changes of pace. He disrupted Connors' rhythm so completely that the defending champion looked bewildered. Ashe took the first two sets 6-1, 6-1. When Connors rallied to win the third set, Ashe steadied himself and closed out the match 6-4 in the fourth, becoming the first Black man to win the Wimbledon singles championship.

What made the difference was not brute force but discipline. Ashe ran his race with intention, not impulse.

Paul told the Corinthians, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." The Christian life is not a casual jog. It demands the kind of purposeful discipline Ashe brought to Centre Court — studying the obstacles before us, refusing to be baited into someone else's game, and pressing forward with quiet, focused resolve. Run your race not recklessly, but with holy intention.