Peaceful

Peaceful

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Be the Ball

Ball: definition:  a round object used in games and sports.

Be on the ball
Have a ball
Get the ball rolling
Play ball!

Be the Ball? I'm talking about the balls that get used to play sports: footballs, basketballs, volley balls, golf balls, ping-pong balls, baseballs, bowling balls and tether balls.
Why would I want to be the ball? Balls get bounced, tossed around, hit, rolled and kicked. Nothing nice ever happens to the ball. I cannot imagine what the NBA games or the Superbowl, or Tiger Woods would be without a ball. Such a seemingly insignificant, ordinary object but essential to the game.

Watching that little bouncy ball roll down the street the other day started me contemplating about how much life is like being a ball. Often in our lives we are bounced, tossed around, kicked, hit and sometimes lost - left to roll down a street, seemingly nowhere on the busy road of life. Wondering at any moment if the next hit, or kick or throw is going to be the one that "wins the game" or if we are going to be squished by the next car that comes along and runs us over.

                    2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (my paraphrase) We get tossed, kicked, hit and bounced on a daily basis . We don't understand, but we trust the Master. Life hurts but we are not alone. Sometimes the game is lost but we never, ever quit.

                   The Message says: We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't been broken.

                 The English Standard Version says: We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

I watched yesterday as that little ball landed in a pothole and missed being squished by the car. I was reminded once again how God in his grace and mercy watches over us and protects us. We may not know how the game will be played.  But we can know that the Champion Player knows how to "play" the game. He knows how to "take on" the rival team and He knows how to "win"

                2 Corthinians 4: 16-18 (My Paraphrase). So we keep on playing. We keep on being the ball. We may lose air and go flat. We may lose our bounciness or be let go to roll down the street. But God sees us and through His grace and mercy - he keeps us in the game. Being bounced, hit, tossed, and kicked will seem like nothing when He finally retrieves us and takes us home. This game only lasts for a short time. It's the game that lasts for eternity that matters.

               The Message  16-18So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever

              English Standard Version - So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renesed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comprehension, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

1 comment:

  1. Sometimes I feel like the ball that got lost in the back of the closet forever...

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