The sweet spot

It’s a beautiful day at the diamond today!

The field has been prepared and we are ready for the players, runners, the activity.

As I look over at the bench, the most important person for our team is the coach. Mind you, not just any coach, but THE Coach with a 100% winning record. You think, who has this kind of a record? God of course! I’m talking about what our spiritual life can look like using baseball today. I know there’s a couple of you out there, that are thrilled that I’d use this in my blog time.

Back to the diamond -

As you get ready for the big day, you take time to stretch, get dressed and look in the mirror in the locker room and check out your jersey. Maybe you think, how fortunate you are to be apart of the team and dream of the day that all of your practicing will bring the opportunity to get the call to leave the bench…. Your eyes are trained and your ears are tunes for “Player on deck”, the Coach calls out and points to you. You rise up, walk over to grab your favorite bat and then approach the deck. What happens at the deck? well, this is where you take practice swings to warm up before heading to the box in front of the plate.

While on deck - there is my coach and He is whispering to me the play he wants me to do. But most of all, He is encouraging me with things like, “you’ve got this, we’ve done this a million times” or “just remember how we did this in practice, I’m right here”. One thing about practice and an actual game, is that I’ve got adrenaline going all through my body. Because, now my walking, running, batting and standing are all on display in front of everyone. There are those who are depending on me and there are those who aren’t for me. Lot’s of pressure for sure. But my coach says, “Pressure is a priviledge” because, it keeps you humble and it requires more than you’ve got.

Then the time comes and I’m instructed to advance to the plate. The whole time my heart is beating fast and I’m sweating a little more than I did on the deck. But, it quickly comes to me, as I look over to my Coach, that He HAS spent hours and hours of time with me one and one, and with my team to bring me to this exact moment. (check out the link for deeper study and verses that explain this further)

I take a quick mental note of my equipment:

Helmet (check), glove (check), shoes (check), bat (check), jersey #333 (check)

I could leave us right here and let you imaging what happens next, but the reality is that just being in the box doesn’t do me any good for my team, even if I’m dressed and equipped.

One thing to know is there’s always opposition in the field. That team has a coach, too! He’s had some wins, he’s got uniforms, but he doesn’t have my coach and my bat and my bat has a “sweet spot”.

So, let’s play ball!

I step up to the plate and I align my bat to the postion and close my eyes and hope for the best. Actually, if I want to hit the ball out of the park, that approach won’t work will it? but, this is how I think we can live our lives in a lot of circumstances. If, I approach life this way, I will end up with a lot of foul balls or worse, a wild hit that could literally hurt or kill someone or even get hit by the ball myself.

Thank goodness our Coach is right there to remind me not to close my eyes and guess. In His commanding yet loving voice, He says, “keep your eye on the ball and swing”.

So, I again approach the plate and clear my thoughts of doubt and stand still and look straight down the pike and even though I may feel afraid, I swing and then Whack! With one hit, I’m running off to run the bases, one at a time. Dirt flying, players running at me, the pitcher tryng to get me “out” of the game, it seems like opposition is everywhere. But, I keep running and remembering, I’m not alone out there on the field! I have my Coach and my teammates encouraging me to “keep going” “keep moving forward” “go all the way”!

When I cross home plate, my team runs out to congratulate me and my Coach is so pleased that I listened to him, but most of all that I trusted the process and ran all the way home.

Later after the game, Coach tells me again over and over that He was and is so well pleased. Although, a lot of the time, I didn’t know what I was doing and had a lot of mind challenges, but, my Coach never left me and He was always encouraging, instructing and Yes! He was loving me. You see, my Coach, He is my Father. He’s invested in my life and in the outcome of my life, because I’m His and we win, together.

While we wait on the bench sometimes, just know that this isn’t a passive place. Listening to the Coach, reading up on the plays, watching other players on my team and especially the veterans who have been at the plate many more times than I have, is all quite necessary. Watching, waiting and learning is the only thing that enables me to take the next step to the Deck. From the bench, I take note of how the other players take their posture and align themselves. Each player has their own stance in the box, but hopefully, we all have the same desire in mind….Hit the sweet spot and watch the ball sail out of the park. A good reminder though is that there are bases, one at a time and they have to be ran to take you all the way Home. There are not shortcuts! or you’re gonna hear, “You’re out” and then you go back to the bench and start the process over again. You’re not out of the team, you’re just out of alignment and need to be reminded and adjusted how to run the bases. By the way, sometimes we are called to bunt or hit a grounder but that’s always up to the Coach. He doesn’t always explain to me His strategy, I just need to trust Him, because He wrote the playbook. He know what a win looks like in my life and the team’s life. I may always want a homerun, but He may need me to just go to first base. He knows who’s in the lineup and I trust my Coach, especially when I don’t see the whole field of play, which is usually always the case.

Just one play at a time, this is where we are to live.

Let’s spring into action and see what our Heavenly Coach will do in us, if we will just let Him call the plays.

Blessings!

Dayna

“bench” is waiting and studying, “deck” is practicing what we’ve been learning and “at bat” is trusting in His Word and walking by faith all the way with our Coach to our Heavenly Home. BTW, we will hit some foul balls from time to time, just realign your focus and get back to the plate, there will be another pitch coming your way.

Photo from unsplash by Kenny Nguyễn