Watching the Ball

I was awesome in T-ball.
I could hit, field, do all sorts of great stuff. I played for two years, and then for some reason, I took a season off. That key season was the one where you move from hitting a defenseless, motionless ball off a tee, to defending yourself from a hurtling projectile. As a result, I never really learned how to hit a baseball well. No matter how many times I was told to "Keep my eye on the ball!" I never acquired the motor skills necessary to consistently make contact. Occasionally, everything would line up just right and I'd get a hit. Mostly, I counted on my small stature to attain a walk, as once I was on base, I was a great runner.

I last played baseball as a high school sophomore. I had one hit all season, and it happened to be a hit caught on film for the local paper. But after that season, I retired from baseball. My career ended, I firmly believe, because I took my eye off the ball for that season when I was 6 or 7. I never recovered. (Interestingly, in college, I played slow pitch softball, and had a near 1.000 batting average. Apparently it was the speed and size that was the problem for me.)

The cliche' of keeping your eye on the ball is, even if overused, a good one. We could all use a bit more focus from time to time. I mean, it is so good, we find that a couple thousand years ago, God wanted to us know the importance of focusing on the right thing. He didn't use the ball analogy, as the people He was addressing knew nothing of the not-yet-invented baseball, but the heart is still there in Hebrews 12:1-2.
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (emphasis mine)

The problem of not keeping your eye on the ball in a baseball setting is that if you don't focus on the ball, you are easily distracted by the crowd, the other team, the noises, the stress, the heat, the centerfielder picking flowers, etc. The same problem applies to life: not focusing on Christ gets you distracted by stress, problems at work, your fears, your favorite show, little gods. Taking your eye off the ball for a pitch means you miss the ball and get a strike, a minor slip up. But when we take a full season off from 'watching the ball,' returning to the game becomes a lot harder.

When we 'take a break' from focusing on God, the longer it goes the harder it becomes to pray, so read scripture, to even find God. The other things in life begin to grow. The 'little gods' of our human appetites grow larger. Our fears become more debilitating. Our stresses blind us. It may seem that there is no way for us to ever regain the relationship we once had with Jesus.

But Jesus is not like baseball.

I often look around at my own life and see that I've taken a bit of a sabbatical from God. I may still read the Bible or pray, but it's hollow, it's going through the motions. When I realize this, and realize the depth I've fallen from where I was, I wonder- How can I regain what was lost?

Romans 8:27 says, "And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God." Even when our eyes wander, His does not. He searches us, and He steps in for us. When we've gone so far, He has not left us. We may lose the skill to hit a baseball, but we will never be lost from God, once we have chosen Him.

We get our focus back in many ways. God speaks to us, calls us back to Himself in many ways. Friends, a song, a scene in a movie- all glimpses into the world of God we have casually or purposefully ignored for a season. And since He knows our heart, He knows what we need to be called back. And when we open our eyes to see if He's still there, when we finally decide to see if we can still watch the ball- He puts the pitch right where it needs to be, at just the right speed for us to make contact again.

The break I took between T-ball and fast pitch killed my baseball career, but thankfully, the countless breaks I've taken from God have never broken me so far away from Him as to prevent my return. Because unlike me and my pursuit of hitting the ball, God is relentless in His pursuit of me.