ARE YOU AGING GRACEFULLY?

 

CAN YOU HIT A SLIDER IN THE DIRT?

“Life is baseball—the rest is just details.” That’s one of many colorful T-shirt slogans you may see people wearing in the early fall each year. It’s time for baseball’s Post-Season; and, for those of us who love the game, it’s the best time of the year. If your team is a contender for a coveted play-off spot, you hang on every pitch and swing of the bat in every game. If your team is in the cellar with nothing to hope for but the arrival of next year’s spring training, all you can do is weep. You have to warm yourself through the chilly winter months with the Hot Stove League, wondering if you’ll lose your favorite player to free agency.

Baseball jargon has given us many sayings to describe what’s going on in our lives. We try to “touch all the bases” to make sure we don’t miss anything important in our life endeavors. We want to “knock one out of the park,” when we face a big challenge, and we want to be “safe at home” when our game is over.

What is God’s role in the ball game of life? He can handle just about anything required for the game. Whether up in the front office with the management, or in the training room with a player on the DL (disabled list), or in the dugout giving the signs for a squeeze play to get an extra run, God knows what it takes to put a “W” on the board (that’s “W” for “Win”).

I enjoy thinking of God on the pitcher’s mound of life. He can view the whole field, size up the game’s situation, see who’s on base, and choose the most effective pitch to give His team a chance to win. If you’re up to bat, you may eagerly wait for God to throw a nice fast ball right down the middle that’s ready for you to hit a homer and watch your hopes and dreams soar—but, sometimes, it seems God has thrown a slider in the dirt.

If you’re unfamiliar with the many intricate types of baseball pitches, all you need to know about the slider is that some refer to it as a “nasty” pitch, almost impossible to hit. When it leaves the pitcher’s hands, the batter sees this nice fat, round object heading straight for him (or her). It’s a friendly, familiar scenario, and the batter knows just what to do with it. For those of us who have been swinging for the fences for 50+ years, we just dig in our heels, rely on all our experience and cleverness, and prepare to hit the ball. The next sound we expect to hear is the crack of the bat as the ball hits the “sweet spot” on our Louisville sluggers.

Suddenly—it’s gone! The ball we saw so clearly just a few moments ago disappears. We swing at nothing but air. We look down at our ankles, and there’s the catcher holding the ball which has scuff marks from skidding on the ground—a slider in the dirt. The pitcher has skillfully framed the release of the ball so that it looks at first like the easiest thing in the world to handle, and then the physics of pitching take over, and the ball drops like a lead balloon. By the time you figure out what has happened, the umpire yells, “Yer Out!” During the slow walk back to the dugout, the batter stares over at the pitcher, wondering, “Where did that come from?”

Okay, I’ll tone down my obvious baseball enthusiasm and allow you to apply the analogy to your own situations from here. Your sliders in the dirt may be finances, or family relationships, or loneliness, or irritating neighbors, or job stress, or unemployment, or divorce, or foreclosure, or health problems, or caregiving responsibilities, or just an unexpected car repair. We stride bravely to the plate and take our best swing, only to realize we just don’t have sufficient resources in ourselves to handle the tough pitches of life.

Those are the times when we begin to understand that, unlike real baseball pitchers, God’s intent is not to strike us out. He can use difficulties in our lives to build us up in our reliance on Him. We may have to spend some time on the bench (sorry, couldn’t resist another baseball analogy) and reflect on His promise that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5)—no matter how many extra innings it may take to win the game.