Now that surprised me. The Rangers are fighting for a wild card playoff spot and were favored better than 2-1. They were expected to win. The radio reception wasn't great, and I heard only snippets of the game on the way to the gas station, but at the station it came in nice and clear. I got out of the van, paid for and pumped the gas and returned. As I pulled away I heard the announcer informing those of us who were listening that the runs that had just been driven in gave the Marlins a total of 9.
What?! 9-1 and the game wasn't even half way over yet? I couldn't believe it. I grumbled. Well, this is not much of a game. Who is pitching? Why are they leaving him on the mound long enough for the Marlins to score like that? Whoever it is, he's not performing. They need to bench him.
That's when I heard Leah say with a questioning tone, so instead of there's no crying in baseball it's there's no grace is baseball? I wonder if I blushed? I had literally just finished preaching a message on grace and asking in the closing prayer to be able to live and walk in the grace of God, and now I wanted the pitcher benched and the manager to answer for leaving him in too long in the first place. Nope, there's no grace in baseball. And it wasn't just me. About that time a pitch hit the dirt and the announcers began joking that they were playing cricket now. They continued with cutting remarks about the wild pitching during the inning. By the time we made it through the drive thru and got our food, the Marlins scored two more runs, the Rangers were down 10 and Darvish, the pitcher, was done for the night.
But once it went bad, it didn't stop. The game took a long time, and the Marlins stomped the Rangers, my favorite baseball team for those who haven't figured that out yet, 22-10. Nope, that's not a little league score, but it sounds like it. This morning I felt much more sympathetic toward Darvish. It's over, and I feel sure that was a hard inning to endure, blowing it that bad in front of thousands of people. Now there's questions about if his mind was on the game or if the upcoming trade deadline had upset him. There's speculation about how the worst performance of his career will effect his trade status.
And if that craziness isn't enough, Beltre, the Rangers third baseman got ejected from the game. He stood, waiting to bat, several feet away from the on-deck circle. The umpire told him he had to be on the circle mat, but Beltre has been hit by foul balls on the on deck circle and is now scared to stand there. So, he grabbed the mat, pulled it over further from the batter where he'd been standing and stood on it. Now he was standing in the circle. The umpire didn't even tell him to move it back. He simply ejected him. Done. Game over for Beltre. Fans who had stayed despite the horrific score in hopes of seeing Beltre hit his 3000th base hit during his last at bat left disappointed. I can't help but wonder if the umpire has Friday's game in a pool speculating when Beltre will get #3000.
Oh my goodness. What's the point already? I know. I just ranted and spent way too much time writing about a baseball game. Anybody who cares probably already knows, and the rest of you Dear Readers are most likely in the boat with my wife wishing I wouldn't talk about sports so much. But this morning I can't help but think about how often we may feel like we're in situations like the above, because we live in a world without a lot of grace.
There are times when things start to go wrong, like Darvish's pitching, and we can't keep the train from going off the track. The more we try, the worst the wreck gets, until we're just praying it ends soon. But the moment, no matter how quickly it's over, seems to go on and on as time feels like it's slowing down and our mind tells us that everyone is watching us fall apart and fail. It can feel like things are hopeless and even though everyone expects us to win we're going to lose. How often is it that fear causes us to do something that makes sense at the time, like moving the on deck mat, but leads to judgment and condemnation and failure, or at least delaying success? And as we walk to the showers trying to figure out how and why that just happened, others are joking and laughing about our misfortune? Speaking of Beltre's ejection, Drew Steckenrider, the Marlins pitcher at the time, said he didn't complain to the umpires and called it one of the funniest things he's ever seen on a baseball field.
It seems sometimes that we can never redeem or outlive the past. There seems like a permanent stain showing all the world our worst moments and most embarrassing losses. And I know I am not the only one who struggles at times with the feeling that my worth and value fluctuates from day to day with my performance. There's no grace in baseball, and there's not much in regular life either. But God. There is grace with Daddy through the love of Jesus for me and for you. It doesn't matter how many times we've blown it, relapsed into old behavior or run away from the calling like a prodigal. It doesn't matter how many times that we've tried our best and still had the opposition make us look like little leaguers. It doesn't matter if fear triggered poor choices and we were condemned and judged and ejected from the field of dreams. It doesn't matter if the whole world saw us or just the man in the mirror, who, let's face it, can be our most cruel critic by far.
We don't have to worry about our trade status or value. Daddy already paid a high price for us, and He's not looking for a trade.. He's not evaluating our performance to decide if we should stay His or not. He's not waiting to see if we mess up again or benching us for poor performance. He is calling us to come to Him when we struggle and fall short so that He can wrap us in His arms of love, give us comfort and healing, and empower us to recover, get back up and walk successfully with Him. There may be little to no grace in baseball, but there is grace available in life through Jesus. Because the greatest blessing we have today is the truth that it's not about how well we play in the game of life but it's about Him, His love and what He has done. God loves me, and He loves you, as we are, not as we should be, but He loves us so much that He won't leave us the mess we are.
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