Curveballs

I loved playing baseball when I was a young boy. My first two years in Little League, I really enjoyed it. I played center field. I was a pretty good outfielder, and I was pretty fast, but my hitting wasn’t that great. I can remember going to practices, and I can remember some of the games. Then we moved from our house on Murray Lake circle in Conley GA to Sandtown, which is off Campbellton road in Fulton County. From then on my baseball career went down hill. The same could be said for my football career as well. You see, I stopped growing for a while. I was still 4’9” and less than 90 lbs going into the 8th grade.

But back to my baseball career; the reason it got progressively worse was I couldn’t hit a curve ball. I had enough time with a straight fastball, but when they started throwing curve balls, it was all over. From then on, every time I got up to bat I was praying that I would get a walk. Not a good way top make the starting lineup. I played for a couple of more years. We had a championship team. My best friends and my cousin were stars on the team. I was lucky if I got to play in the ninth inning. I really think that was when I began to lose confidence in myself. Don’t worry, I ‘ve had a sozo and have received inner healing. Anyway it was the curve ball that I had a hard time hitting.

Sometimes life throws us a curveball. We are looking for a pitch right down the middle and then this roundhouse curve ball comes. We thing it is going to be outside, so we let it pass and it slides in for a strike. We have been thinking things were going to go one way, and then things change almost instantaneously. So what do you do? Do you quit playing the game? That’s fine in baseball, but you don’t have a choice in life. No, what you do is reevaluate your position and then deal with the situation as it presents itself.

If you have studied the game, you know to expect curve balls and have a contingency plan to try and hit them. It’s the same thing in life. You seek the Father, and talk out everything that has happened and then go with what He says. He has already seen the curve ball long before you saw it coming. He wasn’t surprised. In fact, He has probably already prepared you for this pitch. It’s just that when it happens, you feel sad. You feel sad that a season is changing and you have to make adjustments. But If you have heard him, you are prepared, and ready. In fact, you are almost looking forward to change.

I guess the real problem is that we sometimes don’t take the time to seek the Father’s heart in a matter and then we just wind up reacting. Sometimes, no most times, that reaction is bad. But if we ask Papa to show us what may happen, then we can be prepared when that curve ball comes. We can be ready to accept things as they are and move to change the reality that we live in. That’s where I am today. I was thrown a curve ball. It was not unexpected. I was ready for it, and I really think that Papa helped me hit it. But it still changed reality, as I know it. I knew it was coming, but I am still sad. Seasons change, people change, love is constant, and His presence is ever abiding. That is what I am going after, no matter what.

Yes, life throws curveballs, but with Papa’s help we can use them to advance the Kingdom just as well as we can use the fastball. I am just so glad to be loved by Him, and to be in His Kingdom. It is an exciting time to be alive.