Playing in the Little Leagues

Tonight a friend and I went to the batting cages. You see we are far from pros and have hears that you have to get more hits on the ball to improve. So we are going for it. We were learning more about our stance and swing but God had something a little bigger than that planned out for us!

Keep in mind we were at the batting cages; if you have never been there let me set it up for you. There are net “cages” that enclose an area in which someone stands in the direct line of fire of a softball coming at you at either 35 or 55 miles per hour. Either way, not so soft! As you are watching and waiting for your next turn, some balls get by the patter and come hurling to the net. That happened a lot tonight! One time in particular, my friend and I were standing next to each other trying to gain skill from watching an 8 year old put us to shame! One got by her though and that net didn’t seem like appropriate protection. But it was! Then i realized that there was a lesson in that. First of all we did not trust what was set in place to protect us an what had protected us and many others from the time it was put in place. As life throws scary things at us, things that overwhelm, things that throw us back we know that we have the best protection that exists yet the trust factor has to go from head knowledge to “live it out” trust. That ball didn’t touch us and we had the opportunity to not be phased by it at all. To know that our Protector is in control and continue walking forward. But so often when something gets thrown at us we run, or duck or freeze. We don’t have to. We can keep taking every step forward with the confidence that God has our back and every side.

In addition, our focus in that time of trouble and out of control situations, also contributes to the outcome. We were focused on the ball and the perceived power it had to hurt us. In that instant, all we saw was the ball coming at our faces to hurt and harm us. But there was something else there. We knew it was there. It had always been there. But as we focused on the ball it seemed to disappear. I think that our trials might be like that ball. They are used to take our focus off of God who is the ultimate protector. We know he is there but do we see Him when life is being hurled at us at a painful and out of control speed? I would imagine that if we focused on that net of protection when the ball is coming at us, we would not be so quick to fall back!

Just a couple of thoughts . . . More to come!