Baseball, like life, ensures that you never know what will happen next. Game 1 saw the Cardinals coast to a victory. They confidently strode into Game 2 expecting (and rightfully so) more of the same against the Giants. Then, starter Lance Lynn fell apart, left fielder Matt Holliday muffed a ball allowing the Giants to score, and a somewhat routine (certainly routine for these guys) fell between Holliday and shortstop Pete Kozma. The Giants, knowing their backs were against the wall, and not wanting to go down two games to none at home, never let off the gas in Game 2, cruising to victory.
Lest we forget, the scenario described above is the same as what we see in our lives every day. Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 says it well: “Consider the work of God, for who can straighten out what He has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man cannot discover anything that will come after him.”
These verses aren’t talking about things God does that are morally “crooked,” but about the way we see the things He does. Sometimes they don’t make sense to us, just like a team playing well one day and falling apart the next. Just like every day is a new day in baseball, for good or bad, so is every day new for us. We just don’t know what we will encounter, no matter how wise we may consider ourselves to be. God sends both blessing and challenge our way, not to frustrate us, but so we will have to trust Him. No matter how old you get, how wise you get, or how much you wish it weren’t true, walking with our Savior is a walk of faith. It is not blind faith or creative faith (believing something so that it is true), but faith in what and Who is already true. Live by faith. That’s the way to endure the rough innings and games of life and the path to pleasing God.
