Swing for the fences!

AUTHOR: Michael-Janelle

If you are a baseball fan, this week is significant for you. The long offseason comes to an end, and we will have BASEBALL back on our televisions. I figured it appropriate to draw a Biblical principle out of a game I love so much—my hope is it is an encouragement and a reminder for you—even if you are a Yankee fan. Let’s go Mets!
Okay… enough joking.

In a typical baseball season, you have 30 teams with 25 players each. With simple math, that means the Major Leagues is comprised of 750 players TOTAL. That means only 750 out of thousands who train, practice, and prepare to play baseball actually make it. These 750 are the best of the best of the best.

In baseball your offensive and batting ability is most commonly tracked by batting average—a percentage of how often you produce a hit vs how many opportunities you have at bat.

If I get a hit every time I come to bat, then I am batting 1.000.
If I get a hit 5 out of 10 times, I am batting .500, and so on.

But even the best of the best of the best generally only bat in the .300’s for any given season. Amazing. The best of the best of the best fail roughly 7 out of 10 times they try. Yet they are considered the elite players in the game.

I imagine if those elite players were afraid to fail. If they chose to never pick up the bat, because the likelihood of failure was greater than the likelihood of success.

You may see where I am going with this.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, the Passion Translation, it says,
“9 But he answered me, “My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.” So I will celebrate my weaknesses, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me.
10 So I’m not defeated by my weakness, but delighted! For when I feel my weakness and endure mistreatment—when I’m surrounded with troubles on every side and face persecution because of my love for Christ—I am made yet stronger. For my weakness becomes a portal to God’s power.”

One of my favorite aspects of living a Royal Life is that I don’t need to fear failure. Every big “swing and miss” I take, every pop-up, every strike out is an opportunity for God to show up. Even the best fail sometimes, but when we fail it never really looks so much like failure. It looks like an opportunity for God to express his mighty power.

So grab your bat, step up to the plate, and swing for the fences knowing that in success and even in failure, God is there cheering you on!