Growing up, I was a huge tomboy. I was always with the boys, catching lizards in the fields, skipping rocks in the puddles, exploring my world, playing sports like Volleyball, Basketball, and Baseball.
Baseball was my favorite. I don’t think I’ve ever learned more about life than from that game.
Is Baseball the Key to Life?
I remember being horribly afraid of the ball, so a friend helped me get over that. He threw the ball for me to swing at. He liked me, and I trusted him. But, he purposely hit me with the ball.
Now, I have to note at this point, I didn’t play softball. I played baseball on an ALL-guys team. So, yeah, it hurt!
Looking at him stunned, knowing he did that on purpose..he asked me if that hurt. I said, “UHM, yeah. Why’d you do that?!” I was completely confused why he’d purposely hit me with the ball. He proceeded to ask me if I was afraid of the ball anymore.
Oddly enough…I wasn’t. I knew that at the worst case scenario, I’d get hit by the ball…and it really wasn’t all that bad. It hurts, but the pain quickly goes away.
He toughened me up that day.
It was like, all the sudden, I understood the game. I was no longer afraid of the ball. And it made me a much better player because I was now willing to take risks.
I played unafraid.
You see, HE knew what was best for me, even though I didn’t. I HAD TO go through the pain, to come out a better player and I think that’s what God does with our lives. He knows best, and allows trials and hurt, so that we are much better when it’s over.
Sometimes the trials hurt really bad, but in the midst of them, you change. You understand more, you live your life more unafraid.
You begin to realize that life is about taking risks, and because you’re unafraid now, you take them. Sometimes they don’t work out, but a lot of times, they do. And when they do, it’s magical, because you know you did that. You know you went for it. Because it’s not about getting your way or not, it’s not even about winning or losing, it’s about doing YOUR BEST to live your life unafraid!
I ended up growing into quite the baseball player. Over the years, I’d like a boy or he’d like me and they would show me how to fully play the positions on the team that they played, divulging all their secrets. So that at the end, I was very universal and knew how to play all positions except catcher.
But, on the outside, I was still just a girl in an all-boys team. And all the teams we played were all-boy teams. I was literally the only girl. But here’s the fun part…..I learned how to use a disadvantage to my advantage.
When playing a new team, I’d step up to the batter’s box and I’d hear the other team say, “Move in.”
They’d judge that just because I was a girl, I couldn’t hit. But the truth was, that I was the best hitter on the team and can easily (even now) hit home runs all day long. In fact, when I go to the batting cages, young men stop and sit down just to watch me play. I’m good, and I know it. But no one else did on the other teams.
After they’d yell, “Move in.” It was so much easier for me to score runs for my team. And sometimes, I’d step up to bat a second time and they’d say, “She can’t hit again. That was just a lucky break.” I tell you, that in my competitive nature, that really urked me. So of course, I would MAKE SURE, I knocked it out of the park just to show them! And I’d do it again and again and again and they’d get the point.
Sometimes, the teams wouldn’t judge me at all. They wouldn’t say, “Move in.” And I’d fake it. I’d pretend I didn’t know how to play. “Oh,” I’d say in a girly naive voice, “Do I hold the bat like this?” They’d fall for it every single time (sometimes the catcher would come up and even help me hold the bat right) and then I’d come out of nowhere, last minute and knock it out of the park. It was so much fun and I tell you that we won…a lot!
It’s been like that my whole life. No one ever believes me. They always count me out. I started blogging and no one took me seriously. And yet two years later, I’m totally ROCKING IT.
There are things going on even right now in my life. People have counted me out. They don’t believe in me. They don’t think I can do it. I guess that, they look at my life and think it’s impossible for me to become who I know God will make me to be, and maybe it is impossible in my own strength. But not in God’s, and I’m so thankful that I have a God who backs me up. Who fights for me. Who makes me succeed. Who helps me become the woman He wants me to be. When everyone else is out in the field counting me out, I’m up in the batter’s box ready for the ball to come my way, so I can knock it out of the park.
I know I will hit a home run. I know. All I have to do is wait for that ball. The right ball. I don’t swing like crazy at all the balls. I know the ones that are out of bound balls. The point is to be patient for the right ball and most people are out there swinging like crazy at all of them, getting their stability off course. I wait….methodically wait. Because that ball WILL come, and when it does, no one is going to know what happened until it’s all over.
That’s the power I hold inside, and when I let it out…when I hit that ball…it’s magical.
You have that same power inside of you, but you have to hone it. It comes with years and years of practice. It comes with wisdom, knowing when to swing, when not to swing. When to give it all you’ve got, when to bunt. And more than anything else, it takes courage. Because the whole world WILL laugh at you. They will say, “Move in. She’s not any good. She can’t do it.”
Listen, you have to prove them all wrong. You can’t let the world define YOU, or let them tell you who you’re going to be. You have to live life full-throttle, UNAFRAID, going after what you want, because there are too many bench warmers in the world already. Don’t be one of them!
