Growing up I played softball. I was the catcher and during my tenure as a softball player, I mastered the art of smack talk to the batters. “Hey batter batter, Swing batter batter…and a miss…thanks for the air conditioning with that swing.” “Oh, my grandma can swing harder than that.” “You couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.” So maybe I wasn’t the sweetest out there, a bit of a mean girl behind the plate. Forgive me if we ever played against each other and I said those things to you.
I feel like when God asks us to do something – to be obedient to Him and His ways – I’m getting up to bat. I’m at the plate, my back elbow up (I had a coach that yelled that at me a lot), intently watching the pitcher, attempting to drown out everything else around me. But then I start hearing the smack talk from the devil, “Do you really think you can do that, Brianna?” “Brianna you aren’t good enough, you definitely aren’t qualified.” “No one is going to read that.” How often do we allow smack talk to infiltrate our thoughts? I know when God calls me to do things, I hear the smack-talking devil feeding me lies. I have to drown out those lies and recognize them for what they are – lies from the devil.
I have to replace those lies with the truth and constantly be in the word and in prayer with God. He is not going to send me anywhere that He has not already gone before me, He will be with me every step of the way. I just have to trust and have faith that His way is better than anything I can imagine. I have to ignore those smack-talking lies that the world and the devil hurl at me.
Sometimes when I get up to “bat”, I swing and I miss. “Strike” yells the umpire. That’s when I have to get back up to the plate, choke up on the bat, bring that back elbow up, and keep my eye on the ball, focusing on the ball, not on that annoying catcher behind me. It’s easy to let those strikes and foul balls discourage me, but God never wanted me to be discouraged, especially when He is calling me to do something. He wants me to put in the work, go back up to the plate, and hit that ball. Jesus overcame the world, so I know that He will help me achieve whatever it is He is calling me to do.
I wrote the above passage a couple of weeks ago. Today it was open on my desktop – still or again – who knows sometimes? But I was having a downward spiraling moment, the kind where I was ready to just give up and quit. It’s funny how our own words are used to encourage ourselves. I pray that this encourages others not to give up but to get back up to that plate and try again.
