Crazy Win

Today was our first game of the summer season it was an exciting one. Things didn't look to good at first when we found ourselves in a 5-1 deficit almost the entire game. After chipping away in the 7th and making it 5 -2 we found ourselves loosing going into the bottom of the 9th. Through the game our bats were quiet as we only had 4 hits in the entire game. But the bats finally came around and we ended up scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the ninth to win the game. It was a great way to start the season and a win like that really brings the guys together and we could start bonding better as a team.

Thinking about it now, preparing and getting ready for the game is all I really did and not to much really went on besides that. I did feel a little rusty at the plate today seeing that I haven't seen live pitching in well over a month. With time I know that I'll come around and begin to feel more comfortable.

Today I would like to talk about trust. When we are looking for things from God, which can be various different things, sometimes they take a significant amount of time to be answered. Whether it is days, weeks, or even years God will always point us in the right direction. It may not always be what we are expecting or what we want, but it is always right. Although God appears to be catastrophically late at times, His timing is always perfect. Through the time waiting and wondering we should continue to pray and trust God that he will show us the right way or give us the right answer. This can obviously be a tough thing to do as we want things to happen quickly and clearly. If God just gave us answers to prayers right away, then we wouldn't learn anything from Him. For example if someone were to ask God to give him/her more patience, would it be better for God to just give the person patience right away, or to give the person a opportunity to be patient?

Through life God strives in having us learn new things through bad and good experiences. God is always teaching us new things and at times we don't even realize it. So when going through the day, lets try to open up our minds and learn from the situations we encounter. Lets trust God that he will show us the right way and give us the answers he knows that are best for us. When things take to long we can tend to go to what we think is best instead of what God wants for us. No matter how long things may take just keep praying and trusting God and he will show you the way.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
       and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
       and he will make your paths straight.

The word lean is perfectly used in the verse as it typically means putting your whole weight on something. Instead of putting your whole weight or resting on your own understanding, put it all on God. We should bring our decisions to God in prayer, and use the Bible as your guide to follow what God is leading. He will make our paths straight by both guiding and protecting us. This wont be easy so take it one "at bat" at a time and trust God with everything.

GODISHERENOW.

Sweet Ride for the Summer

Today was great, I was able to sleep in and wake up to pancakes for breakfast. The meals keep getting better by the night and I love it. After pancakes, I headed to Buffalo Wild Wings to do a "meet and greet" with the team for the fans. No one really showed up once again probably because it is way to early in the season to really do anything. I mean not even all of the players are here yet. Well at least we were able to get free food out of the whole thing. After that I headed back to the house and basically relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. My host parents also surprised me last night with a Jeep Wrangler to drive for the summer. It is pretty sweet and we all spent a majority of the day cleaning it. It basically is transformed from what it looked like before. Even though the car is 12 years old it looks brand new. There is still more we are going to do to make the thing look even better. It will be great to see how it turns out.

Well after cleaning we had a super light practice today since the field was basically un-playable because of the super intense storm over the night. It was literally thunder and lightning after thunder and lightning. It just wouldn't stop I had never seen anything like it. I don't think they could even recreate something like that in the movies. Anyways, practice went well and hopefully we will be ready for our season opener tomorrow night! I can't wait to see how that goes and I am anxious to get back on the baseball field and compete.

As you could see lately, I have been imputing a new theme within my writings and kind of taking a different aim then I did the last time around. I try to pick something out from each day and try my best to relate it with my walk with Christ and how I typically see things.

I didn't really think anyone read this, but after people asking me what happened last night, I guess I will have to use my time a bit better.

Anyways what I am going to use today is the analogy of making a dirty old car and making it look brand new. It is simple comparing this to our lives as Jesus cleanses us when we decide to fully commit to him. Committing to Jesus at first can be one of the most difficult things at first especially with the enemy (Satan) trying to do everything possible to make us stumble. Often times we can be haunted by our past and right when we think things are going good something else happens to put us down. Now I know that while we are on earth this will continue to happen for our life time but when we have Jesus, He can help us come out of the dirty situation and looking better then we did before. Now of course this will take time and there will be times were we just want to give up and fall into the trap but in the end it will be worth all the trouble. Jesus takes hold of each situation and makes us learn from it. Overall we come out of the situation a better and stronger person. Jesus' brother James explains this perfectly in James 1:2-3.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Now considering it "pure joy" may seem ridiculous at times especially when the situation is at full throttle but we must remember that ALL things are possible with Jesus and he can help us overcome anything. We don't really have to be happy about all of these situations, but we have to try our best to have a positive outlook on it all. The fact that we develop positive characteristics (perseverance) through the situations is motivating enough. It takes time and patience so at times we will need to bear down and take things one "at bat" at a time.

GODISHERENOW.

Made it on the News

Well today was a really slow and not to much really went on so my blog will be a little short but the stuff that did was pretty exciting. I started the day off going to the gym and getting ready for practice, we were supposed to have a scrimmage today but there still weren't enough players to really field a team so we decided to cancel it. We are improving though, we now have 8 guys with more coming supposedly tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to field a team come Thursday where we open up our season.

Anyways, practice and everything went good. The local news showed up today at practice and interviewed a few of the guys about the upcoming season. I was blessed enough to be able to make the video and be on TV! I was on it a few times last year and it was pretty cool.



I forgot all my toiletries at home and so I had to run to wal-mart and get a few things. The one fear of travel is forgetting something that is important. When going somewhere for a long period of time we constantly panic the night before while packing. Whether it may be going through every item of clothing, pulling everything out of the bag to double check and make sure you have everything, or making sure you bag doesn't weigh over 50 pounds so the airline doesn't charge you more. After it comes down to it we end up over packing and bring things that we never use. I mean we don't know what we are going to encounter on our trip so we try to go through every situation possibly "just in case" something drastic occurs and we need that T-Shirt that we haven't worn in months. Sometimes the situations occur and sometimes they don't either way we always bring stuff we don't need and most of the time we forget the things we needed most. Thinking about it, we kind of go through life the same way.

Often times, we have a constant fear about missing something special that goes on around us. With that, we tend to over due things and try to not miss anything that is going on around us. (Now this can be a million different situations and I am not really going to go into detail so hopefully you understand.) This can lead to us overwhelming ourselves and forgetting what is most important which is following God's plan. We can fill ourselves with all these "needs,"and can forget the one thing we need most. Now usually we have no idea what God's plan is for us and we spend a constant amount of time searching for it. God gives us many positive things in life that stick with us forever. We have to usually work for these things and they don't come easy. We may not always use them but we must always be ready to just in case the opportunity comes up. In the end just remember that without God we would have nothing. Not a trip to go on, not happiness, not love, not life.

Today's verse is Colossians 3:1-4.
 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Setting our hearts above means striving to put heaven's priorities first on our list and into our daily practice. Also, concentrating on what is above means concentrating on eternal rather than the temporal things. We change our moral and ethical behavior by letting Christ live within us, so that he can shape us into what we should be. So take life one "at bat" at a time and lets let God be in control.

GODISHERENOW.