by Mercedes McGee (Member)
During my daughter’s softball game the other day, I began instructing my child on what she should be doing on the field, as did most of the parent’s; I must add I know very little about softball. Eventually, the coach walked over to all the parents and said, “Hey guys, I know you want your children to do what you are telling them, but please remember that I am the coach and I need them to listen to me.”
This statement hit me right on the head and I began to think, how many times does God instruct us to do His will and we try to be the parents on the bleachers telling God that we want to do something else? One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?”
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”(Romans 9:19-20) God is the ruler of everything, He brought everything to existence.
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.(1 Chronicles 29:11-12)
He knows when all will perish, when He speaks it, it will happen as we have seen in Genesis and all throughout the Bible. God, Himself, even tells us this: The LORD of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand (Isaiah 14:24).
Knowing this should give us strength to let go of everything . If we step to the bleachers and just sit back in this ballgame called Life, we will find ourselves at peace because we know that the Creator of ALL cares so much about us that He won’t coach us in the wrong direction. He is sovereign. “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. (Job 42:2)
In this ballgame called Life, we are in two places, concerning the game.
Sometimes we are on the field and our coach, God, is telling us what our next move is. At times He calls us to run at top speed and stay focused on the next base. Sometimes He tells us to stay put for a little while and wait for His call for our next move. When this happens, we need to know what our Coaches’ voice sounds like, because just like in a softball game there are others who would try to coach us differently. We have to know who the other two “coaches” are; they are our own voice and our enemy, Satan’s voice. To drown out the other coaches we must stand firm on God’s Word and know the things God will and won’t tell us. We must know that Satan’s voice will distort the character of God; this is how we know the enemy is the one speaking. Our own voice sometimes does the same or begins to worry and causes us to feel uneasy, unlike God’s voice that is always Truth, with power behind it! But during our time on the field we need to remember to keep our eyes on home base: Jesus, since that is where our entire life should be running to!
Then there are times when we are the parents in the bleachers. But instead of yelling at our children, or in this case voicing our opinions on what we want to do instead of what God tells us to do, we should stop being the parent and be the children who are sitting back allowing God to do His will and have control over everything in our lives. Not just during the good times of the game but in the bad times, also.
At the ballgame, the other day, as I was yelling to my child to do this or that, I realized that she was listening to her coach and doing what he told her to do. And it dawned on me that, if in life, if I would be like my child and listen to my coaches instructions, I can play this game exactly the way he wants me to. And at the end of this game I will hear my coach say, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”
-Mercedes McGee
