That yellow plastic ball with its wiffle type structure shot up into the sky, slowed, was caught by the wind and took an unexpected left turn drifting further and further until it nearly went over the maybe 12-foot fence, dropping suddenly right at the fence.
“Out!” Yep, that pickleball I just hit was most definitely out.
Despite my hand eye coordination and spatial awareness issues, I have decided to take up pickleball as a new hobby…certainly not because fast thinking, instinct, and general sportiness are my forte. My goal in most games is to get to 4 points. Then, the other person gets to say “Ten, Four” right before they win. For those of you not geeky enough to know, “ten, four”, when said over a radio, usually means, “message received.”
Strangely, despite the ball careening to places I have no idea how it gets to, I really enjoy playing pickleball. My mistakes don’t bother me as much in a sport that I expect to mess up in. I have found that I have an irrepressible urge to emote and externally process every serve and return hit. When the ball unexpectedly goes precisely where I want it to, I cannot help but do a happy jump and maybe pump my arms a little. Sometimes I tell myself out loud, “Nice!” When the ball ends up in the neighboring pickleball court, I enjoy giggling and saying “Out” but in a long-exaggerated fashion.
I feel no guilt over missing a shot; I expect to get it wrong sometimes. I am amazed when I get it right, and I cannot contain my excitement. Sometimes I wish I could approach all of life a little bit more like pickleball.
“For by the grace given me I saw to every one of you: do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” (Romans 12:3 NIV)
When I flub a social engagement, maybe I can just say a long-exaggerated giggling “Out!” When I forget something that “normal people” would remember, maybe I can pretend that I simply hit the pickleball of life into the wrong side of the court on my serve. “Oops!”
I know that life has some essentials, and I don’t mean to make light of the things that you really do need to get right, but you do not have to get all of life right. In this game of life, you are going to mess up. If you never mess up, you have stopped playing the game.
I am starting a master’s in theology, and the vocabulary, writing styles, and discussion styles feel so foreign to me. I started studying nursing at 16 years of age and stuck with that scientific field for 20 years, and now for the first time I am attempting a brand-new subject…theology. I feel like I am going to hit that pickleball over the fence more than once before I start finding my way through it!
It doesn’t have to be that you are starting something new. Maybe you are just trying to live life, but you feel like that ridiculous ball of “doing it right” keeps drifting out of bounds. I would like to challenge you to just take a breath, relax a little, and be patient with yourself. When you do something amazing, try doing a happy jump, and tell yourself, “Nice!”
Life is an adventure, and those balls rarely go exactly where you expect them to, and sometimes they veer off course in dramatic fashion. God is not surprised or worried. Keep walking with him, submitting your life and choices to him, and see if you can have some fun along the way!
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8 NIV)