Matthew 5 10 through 12.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you and people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.

Friend the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks, God.

When I was a kid, my dad drove a Chevy Corsica, but not in a 2025 Portland ironically cool way.

In a 1997, this is what I can afford and it gets me from A to B kind of way.

And I remember that car very well because I rode in it twice a week to baseball practice.

He was the coach of the team, so he'd come home from work early every Tuesday and Thursday,

scoop me up in the Corsica, and we'd always stop at this little market that was on the way because they sold both sunflower seeds and slush puppies.

And the Corsica did not have a CD player in it, but I had a disc man with the cassette adapter.

Anyone?

And I was neck deep in a love affair with 90s hip hop at this phase in my development.

So without exaggeration at all, every Tuesday and Thursday evening we would roll up to the

baseball field, him with the cheek full of seeds, me, teeth already stained blue from the slush puppy,

every window in the Corsica rolled down

as we were blaring 90s hip hop as loud as the stereo would allow.

Everyone in the park, like every other practice,

would stop because they would feel us coming

through the shaking of the ground and look over.

...