Ball in play
Ball in play
The shortstop watches carefully, poised for the unexpected. The batter may send the ball his way. Each inning all through this contest, the man with the glove is on the receiving end of surprises. Sometimes the ball comes at him like a lightning bolt, and sometimes it looks more like a rabbit running for its life.
ESPN SportsCenter know-it-alls watch, replay, and condense each play. With the benefit of slow motion and hindsight, they make glib editorial comments and render opinions and judgments about every play. Yet not one of them is out there in the dirt between second and third base. The game’s outcome rides on the one who has to handle the ball in play.
Beloved Bible episodes are often compressed into replay mode, too. We don’t have to lie face-down on the ground for seven days as David did when he grieved the consequences of his hard heart (2 Samuel 11–13). Nor do we have the anxiety of Abraham’s all-nighter before he saddled his donkey for Moriah (Genesis 22:1-19). We can simply read it from our recliner in 20 seconds.
We say we have known the episode of Daniel in the lion’s den (Daniel 6) since we were children? But are we still able to hear it as if the ball is in play? Instinctively we think “Oh, Daniel gets out of this.” That’s only because we didn’t have to crouch in the bones and litter, see the green eyes in the darkness, or hear the grunts of large predators. Who can say Daniel knew he was going to get out of that den of lions?
What about the muck at the bottom of the cistern that slipped away under Jeremiah’s feet (Jeremiah 38:1-13)? No fair for me to say, “Oh, it’s all right; he gets out of there.” The gang stoning the apostle to death outside Lystra’s city gate (Acts 14:8-20) did not say, “Enough of that, boys. Paul gets to stumble away from this one. There are still 14 more chapters of Acts to go.”
ESPN SportsCenter know-it-alls watch, replay, and condense each play. With the benefit of slow motion and hindsight, they make glib editorial comments and render opinions and judgments about every play. Yet not one of them is out there in the dirt between second and third base. The game’s outcome rides on the one who has to handle the ball in play.
Beloved Bible episodes are often compressed into replay mode, too. We don’t have to lie face-down on the ground for seven days as David did when he grieved the consequences of his hard heart (2 Samuel 11–13). Nor do we have the anxiety of Abraham’s all-nighter before he saddled his donkey for Moriah (Genesis 22:1-19). We can simply read it from our recliner in 20 seconds.
We say we have known the episode of Daniel in the lion’s den (Daniel 6) since we were children? But are we still able to hear it as if the ball is in play? Instinctively we think “Oh, Daniel gets out of this.” That’s only because we didn’t have to crouch in the bones and litter, see the green eyes in the darkness, or hear the grunts of large predators. Who can say Daniel knew he was going to get out of that den of lions?
What about the muck at the bottom of the cistern that slipped away under Jeremiah’s feet (Jeremiah 38:1-13)? No fair for me to say, “Oh, it’s all right; he gets out of there.” The gang stoning the apostle to death outside Lystra’s city gate (Acts 14:8-20) did not say, “Enough of that, boys. Paul gets to stumble away from this one. There are still 14 more chapters of Acts to go.”
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