One, Two, Three Strikes, He Wins!

Dissensions, demise, and division are overwhelming; tell me, you don’t hear the banter? Life can resemble chatter at a losing baseball game. The shouts of support, while others condemn, not showing their best selves or support for the Team!

We try to balance the whirlwind without being blown over by it. Regardless of our connection points, people often join the downward spiral, causing challenging moments in the overall gameplay. Why do we give up before the next inning? Here’s a guess?

Our world keeps the focus on giving adrenaline hype to the negative. This attention to the negative makes the fight to move forward somewhat futile. In this futility, it’s more natural to fail. Failure teaches us, but it’s crucial to persevere. It may take a few innings to regroup, but God makes sense of our strikeouts and brings us back into the game. Life attempts to tell us otherwise. Again, God is with us guiding toward the win.

As players, we receive the pitch at-bat and run with vigor toward home plate during the game. We may stumble, pull a muscle, or worse, get ejected from the game, causing an immediate depletion in energy. How quick we are to forget every inning matters in these moments of pain or embarrassment; even those cut short, are part of our season. Emotion clings to performance joys, not circumstance. The power within, fueled by a loving God, is a fire of spirit in our circumstances.

Team attitudes influence outcomes, and performance is subjective to their mindset. But there is a collective responsibility to give our best effort. The whole point is to work toward the end goal, because to lose even one player along the way causes consequence.

The power of deceit is eager to divide us from our goal, and this battle is ongoing. Each inning has importance; the aim is to get home and leave no players on base. If a player has an off-game, the team rallies in support, allowing correction while understanding players will have challenging seasons. Still, sometimes the coaching is not enough, and a player gets stuck. It is not our job to fix, instead guide them to inspect their issue and reaction. They are part of the team. Point them toward the playbook and tell them it’s going to be okay. Encourage them to regroup.

We have the same playbook at our disposal within the word of God. Give folks time to let Him coach them through the tough plays. Your best action is to humble yourself before them and surrender them to Jesus. He will do the rest! Don’t get it twisted; you are not the coach but a team player.

The grand slam hit is one of the most fabulous events during a game. We applaud the runner who heads home with no obstacles. However, we learn from each run as we round the bases.

Sometimes, the prolonged innings fuel determination as we wait on three outs for new beginnings. The highs and lows spar in the stretch, and the fight-or-flight reactions ensue. We hurry, considering the quickness of decision, and our best options, as all parts of the game are essential to our series.

I’ve had a few innings of late where I wished for a runner to take my base or for the Umpire to call the game, believing I understood the outcomes. However, challenging in play; therefore, “We need not lean on our understanding. (Proverbs 3:5-6) “

Sometimes we grow weary in the middle of an inning, needing rest, unable to take one, or not allowing ourselves to sit on the bench for an inning or two. We may require the coach to step in and guide us, and He does. Sad that the attitude of hopelessness clouds our ability to hear Him coaching. Put on the rally cap of hope and let Him reignite your spirit. Let’s brush off the dust and prep for the next inning. Regardless, it is crucial and not about us. It’s about the game, the entire series, and the overall perspective.

Games end, delays occur, and we strive to comprehend their purpose, even when unclear. While the experience of missing a game is robust, sometimes, sitting on the sidelines, we can review the plays with God. He makes sense of it all; He shares strategies to heal and with an attitude to improve, you’re ready for the next inning.

A good player looks forward to using what brought them to a certain point using the wisdom earned from previous games. Trying an alternative approach to the repetitive negatives can move one in a positive direction, but again, there’s a power on earth that wants to keep you from getting home.

It wants to keep our focus on other players or teams, their pros and cons, instead of improving us for the team’s benefit and for one another. The crowd’s distracting; we retreat, sit out, or stop trying, and the game falls apart. We shame and blame (Proverbs 6:16-19), argue and complain (Phil 2:14-16), all things with proper instruction within the first playbook.

Our inner strength empowers us to overcome any obstacle, including ourselves. We’re all players on the field. One day you get the game ball; the next, you can’t connect with it even once.

Life tells you once you’re part of the team, it will be a forever connection, and many times, it’s not the case as teammates disappoint. But God wants us connected to Him first, keeping an attitude of hope in and for others! God’s lifeline never unravels, even when other players, or we ourselves, become unwrapped.

If He allows us to fall, He’s planning the rebuild. He gives us experiences, moves our position, and makes us better players. Consider strikeouts as simple correction. Consider timeouts in the innings to change strategies and create a new play.

When others assume our positions, they won’t understand our care methods, too, as they aren’t experiencing your inning the same way. Each person experiences life differently in a unique and spiritual pull.

Players and coaches ruffle with pride or attack when the umpire makes a call. They may share untruths and perpetuate a lack of momentum toward the win. We assume without knowing the truth about the request. Is what we hear factual? Can we truly perceive without slowing time to review and witness the scene’s truth?

Is the call not to love one another despite our truths?

As players in the game, we wonder why God allows certain things to happen? Some innings seem okay, and others not so much. There’s no need to worry when submitting to prayer as truth prevails. We don’t intend to obstruct, but our weaknesses are noticeable.

Love others in your game the best you can, period! Hold each other in His love. He is better at it, but we forget we’re not Him. We can stay in the game; we need to spend more time working on our skills as potential game-changers and stop coveting our neighbors’ gifts or actions.

Why do we expect perfection from people who have flaws similar to our imperfect selves? By submitting to His sufficient grace, the Spirit of God can work through us, and only then do we supply the genuine connection with His presence toward others in our circumstances. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize the power source. Is it yourself, someone else, or have we let our battery run down far enough for the pure energy of the Holy Spirit to shine through?

As we depend more on the Holy Spirit, others may scoff as we speak of Him. What if they saw God in us? I bet they would mock less, a mere thought, but provoking, don’t you think? Are we showing His light, or are we dimming? God’s presence ignites the field with excitement. Yet, mischievous kids throw hardballs, dimming the great light.

Like the fly ball, our words and actions can cause damage to their accidental release; hard balls hurt! We must stop flailing them in destruction and let the gameplay out with God’s grace, keeping an attitude of grace.

Let God nudge you toward unity and remove the focus off worldview. We aren't usually the ones that handle figuring out the stories! Our greed for being right focuses on the situation's sinful nature and not on forgiveness. Love people, forgive them, pray for them, and let God decide the plays. We should stop telling people how to live based on our own opinion and live according to the word of God. If we stop analyzing people and situations, we become more open to what God is working through, moving closer to unity in purpose.

No matter how we play our inning, we can mess up, cheat, lie, steal, or win, and God's show's plan for every bit of the game. He assures us of this truth. It will be tough. You may feel broken, and you will lie to yourself, to others, and then submit again to the flesh.

The good news is God loves us; He shares that love through others. Be careful, or you may miss whom they sent as your pinch hitter. He loves you, forgives you, will not harm you, and works all things for good. The focus on earth fails compared to His Majesty and our heavenly home.

Earthly good seeks to distract us as we experience this game. It's a bit of a paint-by-number game compared to the tapestry of Heaven gates. If broken today, God is moving you to your tomorrow. He is using your story as part of His. Our hearts should break for what breaks His, and then maybe the weeping in the world would turn to tears of joy.

While I'm not sure what part of life's inning you're in, the climb, the top of the downward spiral, know this: God wants you to experience Him in your moments. He will make it clear sometimes in minutes, months, or even years from now. But when you see how paying attention to the game made you sense God more, He will be all you seek.

These life moments are surreal compared to their future purpose. Are we getting answers or clouding the beautiful outcome with our thoughts and reactions? Life should draw us closer in unity to the design of God's plan and purpose, not our own. Brokenness is a breeding ground for deceit and wants to blur the entire supply of God's Spirit.

The opposing force wants us to separate and turn away from home if we look into the storm, but God's hand in ours is ours. However, the pull of fictitious wind is swirling to distract from He never let go.

When frustrated and looking at your current inning with an evil glare, He still chooses you. You may have harmed someone unintentionally, or perhaps it was intentional; always, He is there to take you back into His arms of forgiveness. Maybe you turned your back or misrepresented the truth, yet He chooses you. Then sometimes the plank obstructs your view in your eye; He still wants you.

It's understandable to get confused, even angry! Go ahead, have the tantrum, talk to Him like his real dad, and share your feelings in the conversation. Tell Him; He doesn't understand. Tell Him you can't, you won't, you don't want to, and He will still choose you. Because of the cross, John 3:16, God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish and have eternal life. You can be imperfect, but don't focus your attitude on imperfections but on the uniqueness God allows for all the team members.

How sad that He keeps choosing us, and we keep deciding whom to choose? I'm imperfect and flawed; we all are as we act foolishly in reaction to the umpire calls. Separation and division are powerful ploys of the enemy. We play into his hands when not falling into God's love.

He encourages us to beware of the schemes of deceit; while persecution is real, He brings us closer because separation breaks His heart, but He knows us so well and wants us to seek Him first.

God gives coaching for the win, telling us there will be stringent tests on what He is sharing. He allows the completion of acts for others through us. The remarkable thing is our Father chooses us when we don't want Him. When we hide or run from that which is hard, He gets closer still. When we separate body and mind, He holds our heart in the dormant state to rest it up for the new inning.

He will choose us every time, and we must accept Him right back. God is in the game with us, so get the ball back to Him because He wins no matter what, one, two, or three strikes.