Any baseball fans out there?
Ahh yes, those lazy days of summer soon to be upon us: sitting at the ball park enjoying time with your dad, your son or a buddy. For that brief period of time while you are snacking on all manner of food and drink, that contains nothing of nutritional value but lots of good-tasting, blood thickening comfort, your troubles are miles away.
Nothing to concern yourself with but pitches, balls, strikes, stolen bases, hits, outs, runs, batting averages, player stats, and anything else of interest that is fairly non-consequential.
I have never really been into baseball. I have been to a couple of major league games, but never played the game. I have a buddy though who his entire life has secretly wanted to be a baseball commentator:
“Next up we have Jones, who has a batting average of .303, but is hitting .225 against Eduardo over their last 5 meetings. He grew up in Gainesville, Alabama, where he got his first home run against the Townsville Titans at age 7 – ohh, the pitch is high and outside. Ball one – He played center field for 3 seasons for the Gainsville Gators during elementary school – ohh, swing and a miss – then went on to play shortstop in middle school…”
You get what I mean.
I have discovered that God is into baseball. In fact, He is a pitcher – a southpaw. A southpaw is someone who pitches with his left hand. Not only is God a southpaw, He doesn’t even pitch from the pitcher’s mound.
No, He pitches from left field.
Have you ever heard that phrase, “That came right out of left field”? What it refers to is something that is completely unexpected. “I didn’t see that coming – it came right out of left field.”
It has been my experience that God can oftentimes pitch opportunities right out of left field. Completely unexpected. Seemingly unconnected to anything else that was going on. Something that could be easy to miss, or dismiss if we don’t pause to consider what is going on and ask the Lord if He is somehow behind this.
Over the years I have had numerous experiences like this where I considered a potential opportunity and was very close to dismissing it until I paused and asked the Lord if this was indeed His invitation, only to discover that it was Him “pitching out of left field”.
You may be looking at something right now – an opportunity of some sort that has presented itself. Perhaps it does not fit your paradigm or doesn’t fit into the plan that you have been implementing for years. Well, all I would suggest is that you pause and ask the Lord if He is in this. This could be something He has pitched at you right out of left field – which I happen to think is the position He loves to play.
In these circumstances we need to be still and recognize Him. Don’t necessarily compare it to what has gone on before; He could be doing something new.
Listen and let the peace of God be the umpire in your heart. In other words, when you consider this unforeseen opportunity do you have peace in your heart? If you do, it could very well be the Lord pitching out of left field again. If you don’t have peace, then it could be time to call it “out”.
All of this is simply to encourage you not to dismiss an unexpected opportunity of some sort that seemed to come out of nowhere. Pause, pray, ask the Lord if this is from Him and look for His peace.
Remember, God is a southpaw and He loves to pitch from left field – don’t miss your opportunity.
Isaiah 43:18, 19
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”
Psalm 46:10
“Be still and know that I am God;”
Colossians 3:15
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…”