Blessed are the Persecuted

Today I'm covering the eighth and final Beatitude which reads, “Blessed are the those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:10 (NRSVUE)

I'm going to be honest here and say that I was not looking forward to doing this particular Beatitude. Persecution is a touchy subject. I honestly think that most western Christians have not suffered persecution. When we look at persecution in the Bible, we think of the Apostles who were stoned; people tried to kill them and they were even run out of town. We see people dying for their faith. I don't know anyone who has died for their faith, but Jesus promises a reward for them. So if you're in a part of the world where Christians are persecuted and you're listening to this, I just want to say to you while I cannot relate to what you're going through, there is hope in Jesus.

How Can We Apply This to Pickleball?

So how do we relate this to pickleball? There's not really a direct analogy, but what came to mind was targeting in a doubles match. If you're the person being targeted, it's usually because you're the weaker player in a doubles team. So what do you do? How do you overcome that feeling of pressure and how do you deal with that situation of having nearly every single ball come to you until you make a mistake? Well, I think once you're aware it's happening you need to accept it. Take a time out, talk with your partner and see if there are ways that you two can be creative to get more balls to your partner. Ask your partner for advice. Ask what you can do to switch things up for your opponent so they hit the ball to your partner. And hopefully you and your partner can workshop a solution to get more points, and maybe even win the game.

Pickleball News

This week's news is about this podcast. This is the last episode in this series on the Beatitudes. The next series will be on 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. We'll look at the attributes of love and see how they can be applied to pickleball.

Pickleball Tip

This week's tip comes from Kieren Ricci and he suggests using a progressive approach to practicing your serve.

Closing Remarks

Make sure you’re following the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you know when the series on 1 Corinthians 13 releases.

If you liked this podcast share it with a friend and don’t forget to stay out of the kitchen!

Music: "Electrodoodle" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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