I feel like my past few months have revolved around a central theme: finding hope in the midst of trials. Lately it just seems like there has been one trial after another, and I keep thinking that the Lord doesn’t give us more than we can handle… but I’m beginning to think He must have thought He gave me Superwoman power. My constant prayer has been “God give me more of Your strength, I’m only so strong.”
On the outside, yes, my life, our life, is wonderful. We have so much to be thankful for, and I know it could be a lot worse. Truly, compared to a lot out there in the world, I have nothing to complain about, yet, I am human and we all have our trials. As the natural introvert I am, I tend to keep those trials to myself, because I’m not one to want to burden others with my silly little worries. We all have enough to worry about.
I would say my biggest struggle, or maybe lesson to learn, has been, keeping my eye on the bright light at the end of the tunnel when all I can currently see is pitch black. I know the bright light is there, but how do you keep your eyes on it when you can’t see it? How do you keep faith in something you can’t see? How do you keep faith in faith itself?
I recently watched Moneyball with Stephen. I’m not a huge sports fan, but I kept hearing rave reviews about the movie, so I gave in and watched it with him. In a nutshell, the movie was about Brad Pitt, a baseball recruiter, whose job it was to turn the team around with the players he selected. As the team kept losing one game after another, and it seemed as if Brad was on the verge of losing his job, he then met a young kid who had a scientific theory of how stats measured up with players to create wins. With nothing left to try, Brad decided to bring the kid and his crazy theory on board to start recruiting new players based on nothing but proven science. In the beginning, everyone around them thought both Brad and the kid were nuts. How could they possibly challenge the way baseball has always been played for decades? The critics tore them apart and Brad was even closer than ever to losing his job. But then, it began to happen, they began to win one game after another. They continued to shift players around as the stats changed, and by the end of the movie, they won 20 games in a row. And all of this was a true story.
At the end of the movie, I started to think, how much that crazy scientific theory was like Christianity. Here, we have a Bible with proven true stories, with a proven formula of how God wants us to live. Yet, the few that believe it, they tend to be called the crazy ones, or radical, or religious. For centuries, critics have been quick to tear it apart because it’s different, it goes against the normal, it requires us to put our trust and hope and faith in an invisible God.
Yet, the few that actually go up to bat and live their life according to the biblical method, it just simply works. With God as the ultimate coach in life, He wants us to bat homeruns, yet, He’s still there with arms wide open to comfort us even when we strike out. He doesn’t guarantee a homerun everytime, but He does guarantee when we lean on His ways instead of our own, He WILL, not maybe, make our paths straight (Psalm 3:5-6)
So like Brad Pitt in the movie, I consider myself a crazy one who believes in something proven and real, even when I can’t see it with my own eyes. I believe God is always working behind the scenes to set up our next win, but it’s the trials that build our strength and our trust and our hope to make it to the next victory in life. As one of my favorite authors and speakers says, Beth Moore, “I would rather err on the side of faith than not have faith at all.”
So though I’m not Superwoman, I do know the source of where I get my strength, and I know He always provides enough light for each step I’m on as I continue to walk in this tunnel.
I want to leave you with this clip from Moneyball. I feel like it’s so symbolic of how much in life we try to shrink down, whether in our faith, in our careers, in our fashion choices, in pursuing whatever crazy dream God has placed on your heart. We are so often afraid to really “sing” and let our voice be heard, yet our Heavenly Father is encouraging us “I think people would love to listen to you, will you sing a little for your Daddy right here in the middle of the store?” like Brad Pitt asked of his daughter in the movie. What song are you quieting inside your heart that needs to be sung?
