Swing Batter
When I was a kid I, like most kids, played baseball for a season. It was a lot of fun and I still remember a lot about it. I played for the Mustangs, I was an outfielder and I SUCKED at hitting the ball, but oddly enough only when we played games. In practice I could KILL the ball. My coach was nice about it, although I’m sure it frustrated him to no end knowing what I could do but wouldn’t in a game, but he was patient and never pushed me or scolded me. I’m thankful for that, but what I wish I did have was someone to tell me that it was okay to strike out trying. Don’t get me wrong, I struck out A LOT! But only because the pitcher knew I wasn’t going to swing. I got walked a lot too mostly from just luck. Most of this had to do with my personality type. When I was a kid I was the shyest person in our church. There was a guy in our church who was known as the candy man, and although I knew if I stuck out my hand he’d give me a piece of candy, I was terrified to stick out my hand. I still got a lot of candy, but only because the guy was nice enough to hand it to my dad and dad would give it to me. Strange to think that now I’ve spoken to churches and audiences that range from as small as 5 up to over 1000. That has to be all God!
Oddly enough there’s a very valid spiritual lesson here. If someone would have told me that it was okay to strike out trying and I did so the odds are eventually I would have accidently connected with the ball and gotten a base hit. That would have built my confidence and the thrill of the hit would have given me enough courage to swing the bat again the next time.
So many times we shy away from sharing the gospel with someone in a word or in an act because we’re afraid we might miss the ball and say or do something wrong. Do you really think that what Jesus cares about, that we say and do everything perfect? Something tells me that He doesn’t care if we get it perfect every time, because we’re not going to get it perfect ever. If we never swing the bat we’re never going to hit the ball and if we never say a word they are never going to hear anything.
What can you do today to take a risk and swing the bat. You might miss! But you might get a base hit too.
