BACK IN THE SADDLE
With our knee braces and protective eye glasses on, and our pickle ball paddles in hand, we were back..back in the saddle doing what we love doing..playing pickle ball with our good friends Dave and Kelli. The tempurture was now cooler and we could finally play outside. After a little warm up the games began. 0-0-1; 0-1-2; and on and on. You could hear the scraping, grunting, yells of victory, and also the “ sorry “ but mostly a lot of laughing. I loved every minute of it. It reminded me of long ago when I used to play tennis ( hint: its not! ). But it’s a little different now at almost 66. If I fall now it could actually break something; if I reach too far I could pull another muscle that might take weeks to heal; and the knees..don’t get me started. So why do it you might say? As Kev would often tell me when I asked him why he suffered so much to climb a mountain..” because it’s there”. So it is with the sport of pickle ball. It’s the craze of not just the 55+ but all ages. We may have paid for it the next day and maybe another day but it’s worth it. Like anything you love to do there’s usually a cost to it but you find such utter JOY in the midst of it all. But sometimes life takes an unexpected turn and you lose your zest for life. It could be an illness, a loss of a loved one, a life decision that went wrong. All you know now is that getting out of bed becomes a mental game of “ why? what is the purpose?” Are you feeling that way right now? Do you know someone who is? Jesus understood this. When he was being flogged, spit upon, hit over and over, and then hanging on a cross alone, crying out to God “ why have you left me?”..He too understood that feeling of despair, loneliness, and pain. But he endured it because he knew what the purpose was and the ultimate gain of suffering. Love. Unconditional LOVE. His suffering, death, and resurrection has brought us HOPE, JOY, SALVATION, and PURPOSE. Lean on him and he will show you the way back..back in the saddle. I encourage those that have gone through a difficult time but have come out on the other side of HOPE to reach out to others who may need your encouragement to find their zest for life once again.. As for Kev and me…He’s training to go down the Grand Canyon with Jake and some friends. I’ve started my marathon baking for the holidays. What will you be doing? There’s always pickle ball?