When Life Happens - Unexpectedly

by Timothy Howe

Tom & Tim surrounded by a sea of gold and green

I love baseball. Recently, my brother and I attended the last baseball game of the regular season for the Texas Rangers. The game was played in Oakland. It was our birthday and we both love baseball, so it was a perfect idea. We had not been together on our birthday in 15 years. This was going to be a treat. 

When we initially planned on going to the game, we fully expected it to be a meaningless one in terms of how the results would affect the 2012 baseball season. The Texas Rangers had led the division pretty substantially for much of the season and the only serious perceived threat was their rival from Southern California, the Los Angeles Angels. 

We were just going to this game for fun.

Then things got interesting. The Rangers finished the season with a lackluster performance while the Oakland A's, their perceived non-threatening but feel good story of Northern California, kept winning when no one expected them to. And they kept winning. Then they swept the next-to-last series in the season to put them one game behind Texas with 3 games left to play head-to-head. If Oakland won all three games they would win the division and not Texas, the season-long favorite. 

Oakland won the first two games of the series.

October 3 - the last game of the season. And it matters. Whoever wins this game, wins the division. This was not expected to happen. But it did. So, now we are two Ranger fans in a sea of gold and green. We are proud for the A's. I live in the Bay Area and have pulled for the A's all season. (But shhh!, don't tell my co-worker, she's an A's fan and its a source of fun between us.) They have been the feel good story of baseball. But I really wanted Texas to win the game.

Texas jumped out to an early lead, but the comeback A's, something they have been dubbed this year due to their penchant for winning late in games, charged back in the late innings of the game and won the game decisively; and with it - the pennant.  So, hat's off to the victorious opponents. 

I am reminded, yet again, that life often does not turn out like we hope or expect. Things might be going extremely well and then take a swift tack (the case of the Rangers) or things might be going less than perfect and then improve drastically (the case of the A's). 

Very few of us mind any unexpected upswings. Most all of us would prefer to avoid the downswings. I wish one team had one a game, and I am happy for the team which did. Unfortunately most of life's problems are a lot bigger than whether or not your team won or lost a game. 

What will be your response to unexpected changes in life. Do you have the deep inner peace that helps each person through the most difficult times in life? Do you have the confidence to know that tomorrow will be another day and that we will get up and make it through it?

You can find a peace and confidence regardless of what life throws at you. My confidence rests in the Lord. 

Proverbs 3:25-26 tells us 

              Do not be afraid of sudden panic

                 or of the storm that strikes the wicked;

              for the Lord will be your confidence

                 and will keep your foot from being caught.

I pray that you find confidence in the Lord today.