Thought for the Day, 26 June 2008

The Rev. Angela Tilby

On Tuesday morning on this programme Gary Richardson interviewed Roger Draper of the Lawn Tennis Association and asked him why Britain wasn't producing more champions. Where Serbia has four top seeds, we continue to struggle to find exceptional players. Roger Draper's answer was fascinating, 'There isn't the desire or hunger here' he said, and then reminded us that producing a potential champion requires tremendous commitment and sacrifice - and, he went on, you're more likely to find that in countries where other opportunities for success are rarer - scarcity of opportunity concentrates the mind. It seems that that most young British players are simply spoilt for choice and find it hard to settle for one thing. They want education, hobbies, friends as well as sport - and this means that there are fewer who feel that hunger, that passion to succeed at all costs.

One thing is necessary, said Jesus of Nazareth. He was commenting on the single-minded attention of his disciple Mary, as opposed to her busy and distracted sister Martha. In our multi-choice society we don't want to believe this. We want to have everything, or at least, a bit of everything. We don't want to miss out on anything that's going.

But as competitive sportsmen know the one thing they strive for requires hard work. It needs hours and hours of practice. It's lonely and sometimes uncomfortable. It means confronting fear and self-doubt without escaping into hysterics or drink or orgies of reassurance. But at the end, if they stick with it, something beautiful is achieved, a poise and skill that is thrilling to witness. The champion has stretched himself beyond the limits and broken through to be the best.

I somehow feel that our failure in tennis illustrates a wider and more spiritual issue; our lack of interest in virtue. Virtue is not on the school timetable; it's rarely talked about even in Church. What we are producing is not characters but consumers. In spite of all our busy-ness I suspect we have become guilty of the sin of sloth, of becoming the kind of people who sit on the touchlines and criticise rather than those who get involved and cheer. It is human to be easily distracted, it is human to want the soft option and to avoid pain and discomfort. But these inclinations are not the best of us. In our hearts we know we could have more courage, more compassion, more endurance. We could make sacrifices; real choices about who we are and what we do with our lives; rather than the pretend choices that fritter away our time each day. But the virtues can't be bought off a supermarket shelf or consumed in a health drink. They must be learnt and practised and consolidated. Our society needs to know what it values and then encourage us all to run hard the race that is set before us.