S07E003, Play the Hand You’re Dealt, Endurance

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This week, Steven and Nathan are looking into the idea of making the most of what we have in exercise and in life.

Endurance is your weekly spiritual workout, whether you think of yourself as a beginner, an intermediate, or advanced!

#GoDeeper

Playing the hand that you’re dealt is an expression referring to card games. It means to make the most of one’s circumstances or situation. Steven uses this expression to illustrate how best to use the equipment we have available to us in exercise, as well as the gifts, skills and talents we have in life.

He reads from Romans 12 which challenges us to use our spiritual gifts to the best of our ability. He also reads from 1 Corinthians 9 where Paul urges the Corinthians to be all things to all people. Basically, we need to minister to those around us not those we wish were around us.

#GoDo

Nathan and Steven are thinking about playing the hand you’re dealt, but not just in card games.

They talk about how they’ve done that in their exercise – how they’ve made the most of what equipment and opportunities they have.

And they think about how we can really make the most of whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.

Check out this week’s episode to learn how to make the most of what you have in your Faith and Fitness.

Steven and Nathan

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[00:00:00] Nathan: If you've ever played a card game, you'll know that it's important to play the hand you're dealt. Whatever you're dealt, you can't change that. Welcome to another episode of Endurance, Where Faith and Fitness Meet. This week we're talking about, as you may have guessed, not necessarily card games, but the phrase Play the Hand You're Dealt, which teaches us that, whatever our circumstances, we wanna make the most of that, and that's what we're talking about.

[00:00:38] Nathan: Stay tuned for Go Deeper up next.

[00:00:44] Jo: The newsletter, BerryBytes, is back.

[00:00:47] Andy B: Yay. 

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[00:00:57] Andy B: Yeah. It's not just saying, look at what we've done, aren't we [00:01:00] awesome? Although maybe that's part of it.

[00:01:02] Andy B: Actually, the first thing that you see is designed to encourage and inspire you, something that you can share to somebody else to encourage, inspire them as well. So go to www.BerryBunch.org and check out Newsletter, Sign Up, dead simple, and you'll get the BerryBytes Newsletter.

[00:01:36] Steven: So here we are for Endurance. What do we call this bit? Anyone help me here? 

[00:01:41] Nathan: Go deeper. 

[00:01:41] Steven: Go Deeper. And we're here. And for Go Deeper of Endurance, where we go deeper into the topic, into the theme. And we're looking at playing the hand you're dealt. This expression we use, it comes from card playing.

[00:01:51] Steven: Of using the cards you got. So quite often of an evening, four out of five of us. So that's me, Nathan, and Mum and Dad play a game called, [00:02:00] card game called Whist, where it's a team. So me and Nathan will be against Mum and Dad. We sit opposite ends, and you deal out all 52 cards. Everyone gets 13 cards.

[00:02:13] Steven: Then you have to play a card and there's sort of like a system of hierarchy of what cards do what. So You have to follow the suite that's been played, and there'll be cards that will beat that. And the team with the most tricks wins. And there's five rounds and it's all, it's all, it's a good card game we play, very strategic, et cetera.

[00:02:33] Steven: And the thing we're always saying is you've gotta play the card, sorry, you've gotta play the hand that you are dealt. You'll be given 13 cards and you've gotta play to the best of your ability what's in your hand, to help your teammate. 

[00:02:46] Steven: And oftentimes we'll be looking at our cards going, great, what have I got here? And you've gotta make the best of it, make the most of it. So that's what we're looking at. In exercise, you've gotta make the most of what you have available to you. So me and Nathan, we don't have gym memberships or anything like that. We have equipment, [00:03:00] and it can be a bit limiting, but we haven't gotta queue up or anything like that.

[00:03:04] Steven: So we use equipment that we've got, we've got quite a lot of area to go running around where we live. We've got bikes, we've got weights. So we can do lots of exercise through those things. And in life you've gotta use the gifts, the talents, the skills, opportunities that you've got before you. It's about making the most of what you've got.

[00:03:23] Steven: On that note, Romans 12, 6 to 8 says this, According to the grace, hmm. According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts. If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one's faith. If service, use it in service, if teaching, in teaching, if exhorting, in exhortation, giving with generosity, leading with diligence, showing mercy with cheerfulness.

[00:03:49] Steven: So, if you have any one of these gifts, use it to the fullest of your ability, is basically what the Scripture's saying. So if you have the gift of service, I don't know what that really means, I guess [00:04:00] serving tea and coffee at church or teaching if you are perhaps called or, to speak on an Endurance, for example.

[00:04:10] Steven: Doing it to the best of your ability, using what you've got, resources that you have, et cetera. So we've all got different gifts as part of the body of Christ, I think is in context of that Scripture. As part of the body of Christ, we all have different gifts, different purposes, and we need to use those gifts and talents that we have to the best of our ability.

[00:04:31] Steven: So another Scripture for you, 1 Corinthians 19 verse 19 to 23. Although I am free from all and not anyone's slave, I have made myself a slave to everyone in order to win more people. To the Jews, I became like a Jew to win Jews. To those under the law, like one under the law, though I myself am not under the law, to win those under the law.

[00:04:51] Steven: So basically what Paul, and he goes on further, he's basically talking about, to the different people that I'm around, I sort of come to [00:05:00] their level. Whatever their interests, I sort of see it from their point of view. And kind of not being something you're not, but kinda understanding better who they are so you can minister to them.

[00:05:12] Steven: And obviously Paul was around the block a lot. He saw loads of different people. He was with Jews, he was with people who were very religious, he was with all sorts of different people. And to each one he would sort of come from their angle. He would see things from their point of view. He would use words and phrases they'd be familiar with, and we can do the same.

[00:05:28] Steven: So, In your circle of life, wherever that is, circle of life, I mean, whatever your class, whatever group of people you're more likely to hang with, you need to come to their level, et cetera. 

[00:05:43] Steven: So if you're a really fit person, you are really into sports and all the rest of it, and you go into a church and they're mostly older people who aren't so keen on fitness, then going on and on about your achievements, your personal records and all the rest of it isn't gonna be much of a help to anyone. 

[00:05:59] Steven: You've kind of [00:06:00] gotta go in and find their interest and talk about those sorts of interests, and that's what Paul is talking about. In terms of playing the hand you're dealt, it's about being all things to all people in the area of life that you are, to the fullest, making the most of, et cetera. So, yeah, depending on who you hang with. 

[00:06:25] Steven: So that's what we're talking about, playing the hand that you're dealt. It's all about making the most of opportunities that come your way, making the most of your talents, your giftings, and using it to the fullness and glory of God.

[00:06:35] Steven: That is playing the hands you're dealt.

[00:06:49] Jo: Family prayer time. So what is it, Peter? 

[00:06:52] Peter: Well, it's where me and Mum or, well, Jo, we look at, we find a subject for a prayer, so maybe the Psalm or a [00:07:00] country, and then we pray as we feel led and Bob's your uncle. 

[00:07:04] Jo: Excellent. Yeah, absolutely. It's Family Prayer Time. Me and Pete pray together and we'd like you to pray as a family.

[00:07:10] Jo: So join us for Family Prayer Time.

[00:07:32] Nathan: So here we are for the last segment of Endurance and I quite like this episode, the name of this episode, Play The Hand You're Dealt. It's a phrase that we use so often, isn't it?

[00:07:42] Steven: Yeah. I'm just realizing, we've actually got a deck of hands in our, deck of cards in our hands. We should have done that. We should have dealt each other some cards. We should have, we should have done this segment, like playing cards. Just the whole thing, just us playing cards. 

[00:07:52] Nathan: Yeah, yeah. We should have done, I don't know why we didn't do that. We'll talk to the production manager about that. Cause that, that should have been thought of. 

[00:07:58] Steven: That Should have been thought of, absolutely. [00:08:00] 

[00:08:00] Nathan: Anyway, we'll make do with what we've got at the moment. 

[00:08:03] Steven: Imagine that we're holding cards. 

[00:08:06] Nathan: Yeah, just imagine. Or maybe, maybe I can make a picture appear. Look at that. 

[00:08:14] Nathan: Anyhow, so few points I noticed you made. One was that you can't change your hand, wasn't it? 

[00:08:23] Steven: I dunno if I said that, but I definitely, I would definitely agree.

[00:08:26] Nathan: Well, I picked up that. 

[00:08:27] Steven: Yes. 

[00:08:28] Nathan: Obviously you can't cheat your own hand. What you've got is what you've got, and there's no point in wishing for what you haven't got because you will never have it, if that makes sense. 

[00:08:37] Steven: Well, the other thing actually is you cannot affect, when you're playing cards, specifically, you cannot affect what cards you get.

[00:08:44] Steven: You get what you get, and that's that, and you have to work with it. You can either think, oh, this is a rubbish hand, I'm not even gonna bother playing with it. Or you can think, right, what I've got here is utter rubbish, but I'll see if I can't win a few tricks. 

[00:08:57] Nathan: Yeah. I mean at the end of the day, when you get greater success is when you [00:09:00] actually look at what you have, no matter how, how little it may be, no matter how much you want more, you look at what you have and you do what you can to the best of your ability.

[00:09:09] Nathan: Cause that's, that's all we can do at the end of the day, isn't it? 

[00:09:11] Steven: Which is what we're doing here. To the best of our ability. We have not got a deck of cards in our hand, so have to make do with this picture. 

[00:09:17] Nathan: Exactly. 

[00:09:17] Steven: Which isn't that bad, but, you know. 

[00:09:19] Nathan: Yeah. Anyway, I wanted to ask a question though. Do you think I'm a good teammate?

[00:09:26] Nathan: Because we usually, on partner whist, we usually partner up, don't we?

[00:09:33] Steven: How do you say? 

[00:09:35] Nathan: Yes. 

[00:09:37] Steven: Yeah, you're alright. You're alright. 

[00:09:39] Nathan: There you are. So I'm, I'm alright. 

[00:09:41] Steven: Alright. Yeah, alright.

[00:09:43] Nathan: I think we did we, did we win? No, we didn't win the last game. 

[00:09:46] Steven: No, we did. We did. We won. 34 to 31. 

[00:09:50] Nathan: That's not bad. Not bad. It's impressive when you breach 40. 

[00:09:55] Steven: Mm. Very satisfying.

[00:09:56] Nathan: Yeah. Anyhow, so yeah, that's what we're talking about.

[00:09:59] Nathan: Play the hand you're [00:10:00] dealt. When you've got your own hand, I mean, not a literal hand of cards, but we're talking about life itself. What you've got in life, make the most of it. Don't think, focus on what you want or what you don't have. Focus on what you do have. And, as it says in the Bible, do all things for the glory of God.

[00:10:16] Nathan: Make the most of what you have. And that is when you'll find probably the greatest success, cause you're actually making the most of what you have. And that is another episode of Endurance, Where Faith and Fitness Meet