Pat Kelly, a major league outfielder in the '70s, was a born-again Christian. One day Pat said to his manager, Earl Weaver, "Aren't you glad I walk with the Lord, Earl?" Weaver replied, "I'd rather you walked with the bases loaded." 

When one football coach was asked about his offensive team's execution he replied, "I'm all for it." 

Sports are popular because they are a metaphor for our life experience. You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you feel like the champion of the world. Sometimes you just feel beaten up. "I'm sometimes up and I'm sometimes down," says the old spiritual, "sometimes I'm almost to the ground." And we've been there. And so have the people who trek across the pages of our Bible. 

Our lesson for today is about two people who felt beaten up. One was a righteous Je…