Why does he have to trow curve balls?

As base ball hits the home stretch towards the playoffs the pitching gets better and better. 

Steve Ellis former Chicago Cubs Pitching pro said this of the curve - Most often a strikeout pitch. Dives down as it gets to home plate. Many times the velocity is as effective as the movement, because it's usually much slower than a fastball.

“Most often a strikeout pitch” are the first words to describe the pitch. Of course the pitcher is trying to get the batter out. It is not supposed to be easy to hit.

Last week I started to work on an article at home and my daughter calls from down the hall "daddy come kill this giant cockroach on my ceiling." Great that seems real ministerial, real earth changing for the cockroach for sure. That is part of being a Dad and husband. Well the husband thing would have been punctuated by a scream. I am around to be the killer of all bugs and the fixer of all things. I have a mind you know.

  

Life routinely throws curve balls just life a major league pitcher. The thrill is not knowing what you will get. So, why am I surprised by life's curve balls? The same reason you are, we like easy. For us easy means predictable and practical. But how do we know that easy and predictable is the path of a Jesus follower?

To look at the Gospels we see a predictable life of Jesus. He went to synagogue on the Sabbath and went where the people were, the down and out, the hungry, the hopeless, the despised and rejected that was where he was, like I said predictable. But those settings were never predictable, a man up in a tree, a Pharisee coming in the dark of the night, a lawyer challenging his motives out in public. No the scene was never predictable. So why do I think my time at bat will be curve ball free?

Because...you see...I can't hit...a curve ball.

I usually swing and miss if I swing at all. But for Jesus curve balls are what he hits the best. When I am weak he is strong. He hits and I get to run!

I took the broom down the hall into her bedroom. Yes, it was a palmetto bug and then it was not. As I left I heard "daddy you are the best." I am the “killer of all bugs” you know! I am just glad it wasn't a curve ball.

The hall led me back to the computer and writing my article to impact lives for the Kingdom in a meaningful way or did I just do that?

    

In HIS Service and Yours,

The Rev