Play Ball!

"It is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good". (1 Sam. 3:18)



Dear Friends,


Last Saturday morning as my brother's family was "battening down the hatches" near Houston, Texas, as Hurricane Ike was beating down upon them, and my Dad was on an Honor Flight to Washington D.C. to honor our World War 2 veterans, some of the men in our church got up a pick up softball game for whoever wanted to play. I had no intentions to play, didn't even consider it...my body just doesn't work at the speed it used to. Hannah Beth mentioned she thought it would be fun earlier in the week to play and when the gas prices went up around here and the pumps ran out of gas, our Saturday plans were altered to do something close to home. I woke her up Saturday morning to see if she was still interested in playing and she was... the only problem is she just doesn't like to do things by herself. Her sleepy headed brother wasn't interested, and I told her "no" when she asked me...I was enjoying a lazy morning reading on the front porch...besides it had been close to 20 years since I've played beyond throwing with the kids out in the front yard. I used to be pretty good in high school but a whole lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, a whole lot. In fact the last time I remember playing in a game was with our church team a few months after John Mac was born...and he is 18. I remember "tinkling" on myself as I ran around the bases. I guess those were the days before "Depends,"... at least I could still run back then. As Hannah Beth browsed through closets and the garage looking for her cleats, she asked me to help her. I looked in the closet in the guest room and saw my old softball glove in a big metal popcorn can, along with our other ball gloves. Something crazy came over me, and I decided to try and play...that would prove to be a painful decision.
We never did find Hannah Beth's cleats, but we finished getting ready, taking Hannah Beth's bat, and our gloves, and headed to the ball field. When we got there, we were the only girls there. The rest were Dad's and their son's. Thankfully, another Dad showed up with his daughter in a few minutes...I sure am glad, she became my "legs," during the game. HB and I warmed our arms up as the Dad's and their sons were warming up and then we took some batting practice. I fanned the air a few times getting used to the slow-pitch ball, but was thankful to be able to make contact. After we batted a little, they divided us up in teams and HB and me got on opposite teams. Our "coach" asked me where I wanted to play, and I said left field. I used to be able to catch fly balls pretty good and it was not in the middle of the action, so I trotted to left field where I tried to stretch really good..little beknownst to my body, I was about to throw it in shock. After we played in the field, we went in to bat, and I was 6th in the batting line up. I was relieved when I hit a fly ball that landed in front of Hannah Beth, she was playing left field also, and ran triumphantly to first base...not fast, but I got there. The next batter behind me, hit the ball and I began my run to second...as I approached the bag, all of the sudden, my legs collapsed under me, and I hit the ground...got a strawberry and everything, just like i used to sliding into base...only this time instead of sliding into second, I was collapsing on the way to second base...that was really humbling. I think I was out anyway, but I managed to get up and go limping off the field. Folks just thought I fell, and I did, but i have never fallen because my legs wouldn't cooperate...it felt like I had strained a muscle in my left hip...and later it felt like both hips. It wasn't just my hips, it was a whole area of my body, like from my belly button down to the bottom of my thighs...other than that...I was sort of fine:). After we batted, I went back to left field, but I knew that if I had to run I wouldn't be able to get to the ball. After that inning was over, I told our "coach" I couldn't run, so they got the 13 year old girl to run for me while I batted, and she did a great job. He asked me if I could play first base. I had played first base when I was in the sixth grade when I played on the boys baseball team, and another time when we lived in Texas. I was switched positions from the outfield after our first basemen got hit in the face with the ball and had to go to the emergency room...that was a long time ago. I said I would try, and so I did try. I have never played first base so much on my knees and belly (I played on my knees all the time when I was catching in high school, but that's because I wanted to not because I had to because I couldn't stand up) but I managed to play it and only missed a few balls. Thank the LORD... those men were humming the ball pretty fast across that field. I yelled out, "Hey I'm a girl."...and they had no mercy. They said something about "Palin Power" and just kept firing them to me. I was praying a lot, I really was, and by the end of the game, I was catching them out of self defense, and holding on for dear life...thankfully, we won, and I survived.
I'd better go ahead and confess my sins cause Hannah Beth threatened to tell ya'll if I didn't... I was playing first base and Hannah Beth hit the ball. It was a close play and I had to stretch to make the play...I thought my toe came off the bag, but the guy who called the play said she was out. Hannah Beth said she saw my foot come off the bag when she ran by. Instead of speaking up about my toe coming off the bag, I just stayed quiet. Later, I confessed to her I was sorry I didn't speak up too much about it. I half heartedly said to the Dad who was calling, "Are you sure my foot didn't come off the bag?" as HB walked to the dugout. I missed a good opportunity to show integrity there in front of my daughter and I blew it...that's why it's good for me not be competing too much in sports. I am competitive...and I blew it when I had a chance to be honest.
Later on, as my body was still aching from the shock it received that morning...I started thinking about how my injury had caused me to switch positions. I started out in left field, thinking I was playing it "safe" and was comfortable out there, and low and behold, suddenly I was thrust in the middle of the action, playing first base...not in spite of my weakness, but because of it. I started thinking about how that is so much like life. Sometimes we switch positions and we really like it when it's our choosing or something we feel is advantageous, or the "LORD's will." I really liked the switch in our position when we felt the call as a young married couple the LORD was leading us to the foreign mission field. My husband returned to college and finished in record time at 11 years:). He retired from General Motors after 10 years and less than a month later we moved to Ft. Worth, Texas where he attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I attended nursing school at Tarrant County Junior College. What a wonderful 3 years it was, though very challenging for me at times with my school work. What dear friends we made at seminary, at work, and at church, Travis Avenue Baptist. Thank you for all the dear love you lavished upon us our dear teachers, the Lenamons, the Morgans, and the Waters. Johnny and I graduated the same weekend, me on Friday night, and he the next day...what a weekend that was, and such a special time to celebrate GOD's goodness in our lives.
Then sometimes our positions are switched not as much to our liking due to loosing a job, divorce, health issues, death of a loved one or whatever, and we struggle with that not realizing that our "Coach" the LORD JESUS CHRIST is working this change of positions not only for our good, but for the good of others and for HIS honor and glory. When Johnny said we needed to move back to Alabama while we waited for a church to call us, I did not want to go. I liked the "position" we were playing...we both loved Texas, and I wanted to stay. But, my husband felt GOD's will was for us to head back to Alabama and for him to help in the family business while I worked as a nurse in Labor and Delivery at Decatur General Hospital where I was born. We also found out shortly after leaving Texas that we were pregnant with John Mac...a "position" we found very favorable. As our COACH would have it, HE called us to a church a few months down the road, and we moved to a little town called Billingsley, Al about an hour south of Birmingham. I sure did love that "position" until I got so sick that I was unable to continue there with a two year old and infant two years later. I was at my wit's end with my increasingly odd physical afflictions. I did not want to change "positions," but we felt we had no choice. In fact, our COACH was using this "hurricane" to move us back to Athens.
I write about this theme of suffering often, I guess that because that's where the LORD has taught me the most how much HE loves me. As I write this, I think of Joseph in the Bible and how his position was "switched" from being pampered as his father's favored son and being a messenger boy to his brothers out in the field, to becoming a slave in Egypt... at the hands of his own brothers. Thankfully, GOD was working out HIS sovereign plans and purposes to raise up a Deliverer for everyone years later when that whole region was in a famine. Joseph's life was turned upside down and GOD allowed it...to use Joseph to save and rescue many from famine including his own family who didn't recognize Joseph when he was second in command to the Pharaoh. Joseph spent many long years in prison, not having a clue what GOD was up to, but we know that HE trusted GOD through all the confusion HE was allowed to suffer. And when he did meet his brothers after many years again, Joseph held no bitterness in his heart against them...instead he told them, " And as for you, you meant evil against me, but GOD meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive," Genesis 50:20.
What an example to my heart when my COACH, my LORD JESUS CHRIST, who gave HIMself for me and you on Calvary switches our "position." HE knows all about having HIS position switched...HE left HIS glorious home in heaven to come and be born in the most humble of circumstances in a stable or cave, suffer ridicule on this earth and die on a cross for your sins and mine. Yes, HE knows all about "switching" positions to fulfill HIS FATHER's will...but out of that change of positions came eternal life for you and me, and all those GOD has chosen before the foundations of the world to be HIS children...

" Praise be to the GOD and FATHER of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in CHRIST. For HE chose us in HIM before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in HIS sight. In love HE predestined us to be adopted as HIS sons through JESUS CHRIST, in accordance with HIS pleasure and will-to the praise of HIS glorious grace, which HE has freely given us in the One HE loves. In HIM we have redemption through HIS blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of GOD's grace that HE lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding...in HIM we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of HIM who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of HIS will in order that we,...who hope in CHRIST, might be for the praise of HIS glory. And you also were included in CHRIST when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation." Ephesians 1:3-8,11-13.


What a glorious change for us who are in CHRIST JESUS! He changes us from our "position" of eternal death to eternal life through CHRIST JESUS HIS SON...and gives us all the spiritual blessings that go along with that change of "position." "Behold what manner of love the FATHER has given unto us that we should be called the sons of GOD," I John 3:1. IT is GOD who chooses to switch my position...and just as CHRIST had to die to bring life to us, so we too are called to "follow in HIS steps", "take up our cross daily and follow HIM." We are called to "die" to our hopes and dreams and offer them to HIM so that HE might bring forth life through our "crosses," and HIM changing our "position." It took me several years to accept HIM changing our "position" after we moved back home, but HE has taught me, as HE taught Paul, "... for I have learned to be content in whatever situation I am in, " Philippians 4:11. I am thankful that "GOD's ways are higher than mine, and HIS thoughts are not my thoughts"...Isaiah 55:9.

I think of one of my dear doctors out in Texas...Dr. Rea is a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon by training, and was practicing in that field when he became sick from pesticides in his home, gases in the operating room, and formaldehyde. Through the events of his suffering and getting well, sleeping outside due to sensitivity to chemicals, and only able to eat one food a day for a long time, he learned the tools that would help thousands of patients like me who have gone from doctor to doctor with no answers, return to health. GOD has brought patients, including doctors, from all over the world to Dr. Rea for healing...and all this happened when GOD changed his position through an injury from being a surgeon only to being a world renowned environmental health doctor (www.ehcd.com, www.aehf.com).
You know, it's not easy to accept our position being changed when we don't want it to be changed, but that is the way of the cross, to die to self, and surrender to GOD's plans and purposes. HE wants to bring life to those around us, and HE does that through us laying down our lives, and being a vessel of GOD's living water that flows through us. Sometimes those changes are really hard and difficult to accept, but if we can but learn to trust the LORD's wisdom and what HE's doing, it will help us to accept HIM changing our position, and help us to realize our circumstances are not just random events happening in our lives ... HE is the one who does it. As I've often heard Elisabeth Elliot, who had her "position" changed when her husband Jim was killed by the Auca Indians, and then again, when her second husband died of cancer, say, "In acceptance lieth peace."

I was challenged in my Streams in the Desert devotion for Sept 17 to "see GOD in everything," in every circumstance, in every person, and especially when we find ourselves wondering what is happening to us and our "position" has been changed. The verse was from 1 Samuel 3:18..."It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good".

Streams in the Desert said:

"See God in everything, and God will calm and color all that thou dost see!" It may be that the circumstances of our sorrows will not be removed, their condition will remain unchanged; but if Christ, as Lord and Master of our life, is brought into our grief and gloom, "HE will compass us about with songs of deliverance." To see HIM, and to be sure that His wisdom cannot err, His power cannot fail, His love can never change; to know that even His direst dealings with us are for our deepest spiritual gain, is to be able to say, in the midst of bereavement, sorrow, pain, and loss, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath, taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

Nothing else but seeing God in everything will make us loving and patient with those who annoy and trouble us. They will be to us then only instruments for accomplishing His tender and wise purposes toward us, and we shall even find ourselves at last inwardly thanking them for the blessings they bring us. Nothing else will completely put an end to all murmuring or rebelling thoughts.--H. W. Smith.

"Romans 8:28 still applies "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

I heard a song a few years ago on "The Gospel Greats" radio show (www.thegospelgreats.com) called "For My Good and For HIS Glory." You can listen to "The Gospel Greats" on the web by clicking on http://www.sunlite-radio.com/page14.html. The words just went right to my heart, and encouraged me so much. The words come to mind as I write this about GOD changing our "positions in life"...it's part of our maturing as CHRISTians to learn to trust our COACH. HE knows what HE's doing to bring about victory in our lives and the lives that our life will touch. Sometimes HE does change our "position" and HE doesn't even bother to consult us HE just does it. HE is our CREATOR, our POTTER, and as it says in the Bible, the Potter doesn't have to ask the clay what HE's doing..."O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. "
I have another dear doctor in Texas who trusts her Potter for what HE had done in her life. Though her "position" has been changed through health challenges....instead of being bitter about what GOD allowed through her weakness...she serves HIM faithfully as a wonderful physician at the Environmental Health Clinic in Dallas. HE used her weakness to change her "position"and broaden her position of influence where literally lives from all over the world are being delivered from the "bondage" of sickness because of the "position" where GOD moved her. How very thankful and grateful I am for the healing that GOD has brought to my body through her help...I sure wouldn't have been on that softball field Saturday if it wasn't for her.

Yes, my body is getting older and the old gray mare isn't what she used to be, but that's okay. I wouldn't have chosen this "position" my COACH put me in and the sickness that came with it, but I wouldn't switch the "position" the LORD has had me in the past several years for the best health in the world. For in my "weakness" HE has drawn me closer to HIM, shaped and molded our family, brought so many dear people into my lives that I wouldn't have met otherwise, and taught me so much. Hopefully, HE will use some of what HE's taught me to be a blessing to others somewhere along the way.

I walked a mile with Pleasure,
She chattered all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne'er a word said she;
But, oh the things I learned from her
When sorrow walked with me.

The next morning after the ball game, I was at church with my family, skinned up legs and all. Thankfully, I was still able to walk. After church was over, one of the guys who was firing the balls across the field at me said it was really a blessing when I got switched to first base...he said he was confident throwing to me, that I knew how to play first base(he just thought I was hustling cause I stayed in the dirt more than I stood up). I was honored that he felt that way with this 46 year old woman, who could barely walk, much less run, playing first base. It's just further evidence that GOD is indeed strong in our weaknesses, and uses us in the positions HE puts us in when we are weak. I know this, I sure did enjoy getting out on that softball field, even if I was in pain every step I took. I found this out, I'm not ready just yet to hang up my ball glove but I do have some work to do to get in shape to play. I'd better get busy so the next time Hannah Beth says, "Let's go play, Mama,"... I'll be ready to 'Play Ball!"

With all HIS love,
mitzi

For My Good and For HIS Glory by Rebecca J. Peck
"I must admit that I don’t understand
Why God would let me face
This painful circumstance.
All I have to cling to is His Word and His Name.
But that’s enough, so I will trust.

Because I love the Lord He’s promised me
He’ll work all things for good.
Through my tears I believe
That His ways are higher than any of my own.
Though my heart aches, He makes no mistakes.
(Chorus)

It’s for my good and for His glory.
This trial’s not the end of the story
There’s a bigger picture God alone can see.
Faith will take me through this sorrow
For I know Who holds tomorrow.
And He assures me
It’s for my good and for His glory.
(Bridge)

Though I would not have chosen
The suffering that has come
I’m willing now to say
Lord, not my will but Yours be done."