Have you ever been disappointed in life?\u00a0 Have you ever put your heart and soul into, worked really hard at, only to have it seemingly flop?\u00a0 I have and I can say without hesitation or reservation that it is one of the most difficult times in life.\u00a0 But my question is, who characterized or classified it as a failure?\u00a0 I remember my senior season playing baseball.\u00a0 I was coming off a very successful junior year campaign.\u00a0 I trained harder in the off season than I had in previous years.\u00a0 I thought I was poised for sure success in my senior season.\u00a0 And then it didn’t happen.\u00a0 I lost velocity on my fastball, I couldn’t throw a curveball for a strike, I was missing my location on pitches.\u00a0 It was an absolute nightmare.\u00a0 I actually led to me being pulled from the starting rotation, going to the bullpen, but honestly being nothing more than a pitching coach.\u00a0 It honestly hurts thinking about it almost 16 years later.\u00a0 My mind went and has gone to the “what ifs” so many times.\u00a0 But as the old saying goes, “if a frog had wings he wouldn’t bump his backside.”\u00a0 If you asked me at the conclusion of the season was I happy I would have told you it is a two-fold answer.\u00a0 I was happy because our team had won the state title, but I wasn’t happy because I didn’t feel like I contributed to the team.\u00a0 I classified my senior season as an utter failure for not accomplishing any of my stated objectives and goals.\u00a0 But was it really a failure?<\/p>\n
There are times in life in which things are going to occur and there is nothing you can do about it.\u00a0 I had prepared to do what I was suppose to do as a pitcher, yet the breaks went against me.\u00a0 I can remember a verse that I heard a pastor preach on during that season when I visited a church.\u00a0 He preached on Galatians 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”\u00a0 Now let me say this, I was at church, but I could have done a lot better of a job of listening in church.\u00a0 But I heard this verse and I thought, I just have to try harder and keep trying , eventually things have to break my way.\u00a0 So I did, I would do extra bullpen sessions, try to train a little more, but nothing changed.\u00a0 I just didn’t understand it, I didn’t grow weary or faint, but all I was reaping was more and more frustration.\u00a0 It was until much later that I actually looked at the previous verse to what I had heard.\u00a0 Galatians 6:8 says, “For he that soweth to his flesh shall the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall o the Spirit reap life everlasting.”\u00a0 In short, God wasn’t obligated to bless my plans as a baseball player.\u00a0 God was more interested in my spiritual life (which unfortunately was not what it should have been).\u00a0 Although I didn’t understand why things happened the way they did that year, I can look back now and see that God was actually preparing me for what His plan was for my life.\u00a0 Jeremiah 29:11 tells us, “For I know the thoughts (plans) that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”\u00a0 The phrase “expected end” is interesting to me.\u00a0 Life surely didn’t go the way I thought it would, but it is happening exactly has God knew it would.<\/p>\n
Difficulties and disappointments are inevitable in this life.\u00a0 They are not always a sign that God is displeased with you (although if you are living in sin He is).\u00a0 Rather, God is simply working out His plan, which is always the best plan and the right plan, for your life.\u00a0 His plan includes drawing you to Himself in a relationship that gives you forgiveness and eternal life because of God’s plan for His Son to die on a cross for the sins of the world.\u00a0 In the end all we can control is our obedience.\u00a0 Have we done everything that we know to do?\u00a0 Have we done it with a pure heart and with pure motives?\u00a0 Maybe God is not punishing you, maybe He is just pruning you for what He has in store for you next.\u00a0 All you can control is your obedience, the results are up to Him!<\/p>\n
By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever been disappointed in life?\u00a0 Have you ever put your heart and soul into, worked really hard at, only to have it seemingly flop?\u00a0 I have and I can say without hesitation or reservation that it is one … Read More