Curve Balls and Cheap Shots

While we’re certainly flawed human beings, I pray that we all strive to move towards the ideal of Romans 12:1-2 so we may be a little more like Christ in curve ball situations tomorrow than we were today!

There are those moments – and even seasons consisting of a series of interlinked perpetual moments – when things don’t go quite as we had planned. We were going to enjoy a relaxing weekend, but the car broke down…We were going to get some chores knocked out around the house, but little Johnny got injured in a ball game and we ended up in the hospital. We were going to…but…You know how it goes! And when these times roll around, we commonly articulate it with phrases such as, “Life threw me a curve ball today.” Or, “This old world has thrown some cheap shots at me here lately.” So, how do we navigate these occurrences when they’re not words on a page, but the reality we’re staring down? Allow me to share two recent episodes from my own life. One, I believe, is an example of how to handle these moments while the other is definitely instruction on how not to follow my example!

My wife and I recently celebrated 26 years of marriage. Go us! And to all those that said it would be over within a year – Ha! Showed you! I digress…Anyhow, to celebrate our little milestone, we took a road trip to some beautiful country in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Talk about innumerable opportunities to be reminded of the truth of Psalm 121! Leaving the Smokies, we ventured north to get a first-hand experience of The Ark Encounter in Kentucky. Talk about an awe-inspiring scene! The enormity of the Ark built to biblical scale is enough to make a person wonder along with the Psalmist, “Who am I that you are mindful of me?” Psalm 8:3-4. When time allotted for our anniversary rendezvous had run out, we pointed the car south and began the journey back to reality. Two unexpected occurrences unfolded that I believe I handled in a mature Christ-like fashion: First, the eyelids got heavy and we stopped at a random Best Western where evidently the chief requirements for employment are sarcasm and rudeness. Cheap Shot. And while my wife did indeed squeeze my hand as if to say, “Don’t lose your cool Robbie”, my encounter with the Ebeneezer Scrooge of the hotel world ended with a thank you and a smile. The second encounter happened on the next day about three hours down the road when roughly halfway around a big truck, said truck begins to enter the passing lane where I am. It didn’t take long to realize the truck had no intention of going back to the right-hand lane, and with nowhere else to go, I took the median and slowed to a rough and bumpy stop. Cheap Shot. The former version of myself would have chased that truck down with sign language suggesting a roadside conversation, but hey, stuff happens, so we thanked the Lord for watching over us and got back on the road.

Fast forward a week or so after returning from the trip, and I have a week where I have two really big tasks on my to-do list. As of this writing, those tasks are yet to be done, because everything that could’ve popped up did. Curve Balls of unexpected job-related tasks, meetings of various sorts, broken things that had to be fixed, yada-yada-yada all popped up- you know how that stuff goes. Thursday rolled around with plans of finally getting to mark something off my list…until I stepped in water coming from under the refrigerator! Curve Ball. A week’s worth of frustration helped me revert to an old, far less mature version of myself that decided grumbles and gripes and snatching and throwing were the most productive way to handle this curve ball! The same guy that handled the Cheap Shot of being run off the road with grace chose to respond to the curve ball of a broken refrigerator with extreme immaturity. In hindsight, I have identified with the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:13-25 in that I still have the capacity and tendency to not do what I know I should and do that which I know I should not! As in my days of high school baseball, I fell to a good curve ball!

These examples were not outdoorsy I know. But the principles contained are transferable to all areas of life. How do we respond when the big bass gets away or we get busted by the big buck we were after? How do our children and loved ones see us respond to the curve balls and cheap shots of life? While we’re certainly flawed human beings, I pray that we all strive to move towards the ideal of Romans 12:1-2 so we may be a little more like Christ in curve ball situations tomorrow than we were today! We’re all works in progress…but let’s make progress for the glory of God! And one day when our paths cross on a dusty West Bay road or a pocket tucked away out of the wind, we can laugh about curve balls that struck us out and celebrate the ones we knocked out of the park! Keep swinging, and I’ll see you later…in the Great Outdoors!