My sports loyalties have always been
determined by factors other than the skill of the players on the
team. The color of the uniform, the city in which they play, even the
font of the numbers on the jerseys have all been known to sway my
affections one way or another. Having decided on this particular
evening to watch the one-game baseball division playoff between
Kansas City and Oakland, it was a selfie my son posted on Instagram
of himself in a hometown t-shirt that suddenly had me bleeding Royal
blue.
I followed the game for awhile, but
when the score was lopsided in favor of the Oakland Athletics after
the sixth inning, I willingly followed my husband to bed. As I
plugged in my phone and set my alarm, I said to him, “Wouldn't it
be great, though, to wake up in the morning and see that the Royals
had come back and won?” We smiled at the thought as we let sleep
overtake us.
And it was morning - even if
just the wee hours – when our phones started buzzing and lighting
up like crazy. Positioned together near the head of the bed, the
tandem twitter notifications alerted us to the fact that one of our
sons was still very much awake and excited about something. Normally
we roll over and catch up on the news in the morning. But mother
instincts die hard, and knowing that another one of my boys was
driving home from a distant state that night, I picked up my phone
and gave it a look, just to make sure all was okay.
To my surprise, I discovered that
Kansas City had indeed come back and had tied the game up with two
outs in the bottom of the ninth inning! Their desperate do-or-die
efforts had excited loyal Royal fans everywhere, all of whom it
seemed were tweeting the news like crazy as the game moved into extra
innings. Delighted myself, I mentally wished them well and set the
phone down to go back to sleep.
That turned out to be an impossible
task. The excitement proved to be contagious, and my mind simply
refused to let go of the game. So I picked up the phone again,
clicked on the SportsCenter app, and started following the action
again, pitch by pitch. Trying to keep my growing exhilaration as well
as the glow from my phone from disturbing my husband's repose, my
belief in the possibility of a comeback win grew with each passing
moment. When the seemingly impossible happened and the Royals took
the game in the bottom of the twelfth inning, I was screaming in my
spirit, if not out loud, rejoicing with Kansas City fans everywhere,
just as if I hadn't turned the game off and given up hope for a
victory a couple of hours earlier.
How many times have I done that
before...not in baseball season, necessarily, but in any difficult
season, when the odds of victory in a situation were stacked against
me? How often have I put my hopes to bed and resigned my expectations
of victory to nothing more than just a delightful dream, and nothing
more? Sadly, I've done it more times than I care to count.
The next morning I told my son how his
excited tweets had awakened me in the night and led me to tune in to
the end of the game. He immediately apologized for disturbing me, but
I told him how thankful I was that I hadn't missed that
moment, but was alerted instead to the fact that something exciting
was happening, and how thrilled I was to feel a part of the joy that
abounded in his hometown, when the game was over.
Don't we need that? Don't we need to be
disturbed in the middle of our spiritual slumber to the fact that God
is awake and moving and doing incredible things on behalf of those
who believe? I want to be notified while there's still time to be a
part of the rejoicing when God wins, as surely He will, despite how
it looks in the dark of night. As a child of the King, I long to be a
loyal royal...to believe in the One who determines the outcome
despite the circumstances surrounding me. I want to hold on to my
belief in victory even when defeat seems certain. I want to expect
late-inning comebacks and midnight-hour miracles. Change me, Lord,
from a fair-weather fan to a full-fledged believer, that I might be
done with doubt forever.
“You make my heart
sing
You lift me on eagles
wings
Just when I thought that my heart it would faint
Just when I thought that my heart it would faint
You take the darkest
night and turn it to shining light
Just when I thought
that the night had won...”
(Laura Hackett “You
Satisfy My Soul”)
Elaine, I lost some sleep over that game and the other extra innings games in the playoffs! I love the spiritual insights you've drawn from that experience. Enlightening, as always. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi, Elaine. I nominated you for the One Lovely Blog Award. Go to my blog to grab the image and follow up. Please accept this blessing and know that you are special. ♥ http://devotionalsbydonna.blogspot.com/2014/11/joyful-moment-one-lovely-blog-award.html
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