Run the Bases (Friday Devotional)

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.

- Galatians 6:9

Since the weather turned warmer, Andrew and I have been spending a lot of time in the backyard playing baseball—or at least baseball as he understands it so far. In our modified version of the game, he holds the ball with one outstretched hand and then swings with the other arm until he connects, like tee ball without the tee. Sometimes he hits it a few feet, sometimes he gets enough backspin on the ball that he hits it behind himself, and sometimes he misses the ball altogether. But no matter what happens to the ball, as soon as he’s done swinging he’ll drop his bat, shout “Run the bases!” and run a lap around the perimeter of the yard. Home run or strikeout, it makes no difference—nothing’s going to stop him from running the bases.

Ours is culture that focuses largely on results instead of process or effort. Championship teams get parades; runners up are seen as disappointments. Oscar winners are immortalized; the other nominees are largely forgotten. CEOs make headlines and 7-figure salaries; middle management toils away unnoticed.

This societal obsession with success has a way of stunting our relationship with God. When we pray, we’re disillusioned if our request isn’t immediately fulfilled. When we evangelize, we’re disappointed if the listener walks away unchanged. When we give, we wonder why Jesus doesn’t multiply every offering into something we can immediately see.

But the truth is, not every experience is a home run. Sometimes your impatience or your doubts or your misunderstanding prevents you from seeing what God is doing at a given moment. Sometimes moments you interpret as failures or as wastes of time are actually the cornerstone of something new God is building.

So instead of focusing on the visible results of your walk with God, give yourself over to the process. Seek justice and love mercy and walk humbly with God without regard for what will be produced by those actions. Love like Christ for his sake instead of with a goal in mind. Your faithfulness may produce a spiritual home run, or you may have to resign yourself to a strikeout. But either way, run the bases.