What’s Your Tennis Ball?

Don’t push. Get pulled.

Drew Houston, founder of Dropbox, said this:

“The happiest and most successful people I know don’t just love what they do, they’re obsessed with solving an important problem, something that matters to them. They remind me of a dog chasing a tennis ball: Their eyes go a little crazy, the leash snaps, and they go bounding off, plowing through whatever gets in the way. . . . It’s not about pushing yourself. It’s about finding your tennis ball, the thing that pulls you.”

We can live out our faith under obligation to all the things we ought to do. Or we can live out our faith in holy pursuit of the person God has created us to be.

Pushing versus pursuing.

The same goes for school: Who are the best students?

And jobs: Who are the best workers?

And family, and friends: Which people are the greatest blessings?

Anything: Pushing versus pursuing is universal.

In any area of life, your tennis ball might be a promise that attracts you, a moral wrong that makes you indignant enough to take action, or what you perceive as your destiny.

Pushing versus pursuing is much like the difference between bondage and freedom, drudgery and joy.

The difference is also like the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus—who was condemned to eternally push a boulder up a mountain, only to have it roll down the other side—versus a dog passionately pursuing a tennis ball.

Wouldn’t you rather chase a ball than roll a boulder?

What is your tennis ball?