Swing From The Heels

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart”

Galatians 6:9


As an avid Dodger fan my wife loves this time of year. Almost every night she’s watching baseball or at least it’s providing the background noise in the house while she fixes dinner or works on a project. You can learn a lot about calculating success from the game of baseball. How do you measure success? The book of Proverbs reminds us, “For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again” (Proverbs 24:16). It’s been well said, “failure isn’t final nor is success.” Often times the difference between winning and losing in life is simply our refusal to give up, to keep swinging as they say. If you fall down don’t stay down, but rather, get up and try again. I love the image in my minds eye of the quote by Charles Spurgeon, “by perseverance the snail reached the ark.”

There use to be an old saying when you asked how someone was doing they would respond, “I’m batting a 1000” as if to say things couldn’t be better. The baseball term for batting 1000 means you are doing well, really well, like hitting the ball every time you come to the plate. No player has ever bat 1000 for an entire season, and as a matter of fact only one major league player has even reached .400 for an entire season. Though he didn’t even get a hit half the time he was still inducted into baseball’s hall of fame as the greatest hitter in baseball history. Proof you don’t even need to bat .500 to be considered the best.

The legendary Babe Ruth, who held the record for most home runs all time for decades also held the record for most strike outs of all time but few people recall that fact. The “Babe” as he was affectionately known played the game of baseball with an “all or nothing” attitude. In other words when he went to the plate he was there attempting to hit a home run or he was going to strike out trying.

The Bible is filled with stories of men who failed miserably but who refused to give up and who God used mightily. Men like King David and the prophet Elijah in the Old Testament as well as men like the apostles Paul and Peter in the New Testament. Sometimes the way to success is simply to not stay down, but to get up seven times and to keep swinging! After all, God is the God of redemption and Jesus is the King of comebacks as not even death could hold him down.

“…and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures”

1 Corinthians 15:4


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