8/12/26 NEVER GIVE UP
I was playing Pickleball in Myrtle Beach about 20 years ago. I was young (59 or 60 years old), in much better shape than I am now. I played a good game, for a novice. I incorporated my Table-Tennis shots and style, and I played a competitive game, regardless of whoever I was playing against.
I like to think I am a "good sport," since sportsmanship is a manifestation of the inner attitude. Good sportsmanship is a witness to a person's relationship with God. I have often said that "You can tell more about a person's spiritual condition by the way he PLAYS than the way he PRAYS." When you are praying, you generally put your best foot forward, but when you are playing, the real you takes over.
With that being said, I also acknowledge that I like to win. I don't get mad, I don't sulk, I don't fuss, but I do play to win. I don't always play "full out," but I don't play to lose. I take my opponent's ability into consideration.
I realize that games are games and life is life. If a Christian cannot be gracious when losing a game, then that person should not play games. (Actually, what they need to do is get their heart purified.)
Of course, I have lost games, but I have also won a lot of games. Sometimes I would get behind, and it did not seem I could do anything to get back into the game. But I never considered that I was going to lose while I was still in the game.
Sometimes I had a beginner or very weak player on my team. I always encouraged and was patient; after all, the game was for fun, exercise, social interaction. Some of those newbie players were not very athletic or competent. That was fine. I would do the best I could to help them have fun and to learn the game, hoping to give them the excitement of winning a game. I would not steal their shots or criticize their mistakes. We were team members, and I was also their cheer leader.
I also wanted to show them that they should never give up, no matter how far behind we would be. I remember being in games that we were losing by such a margin that the game would be called before anyone would reach the winning score. Today the target score is 11, and you must win by 2 points, but years ago the winning score was 21. There were times my opponent would be one point away from a win and i had only 1 point, but I would continue to play as if I could win. Occasionally I would come back to defeat my opponent. Those were probably the most rewarding games.
MY POINT IS, Never Give Up.
No matter how lopsided the game of life may seem to be, Never Give Up.
No matter how tired you are, Never Give Up.
No matter how strong your opponent seems to be, Never Give Up.
In recreational games, winning is not everything, but in the game of life, spiritual victory is essential.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Philippians 2:12-15
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
Philippians 3:12-15
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
2 Timothy 4:5-8
5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Hebrews 12:1-2
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
James 1:12
12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
