The Game of Life

Monday, 28 Oct 2002

I saw him standing there in the shadows...one of the best home-run hitters of all times. It wasn't his best day. His team had just lost the seventh game of the World Series and he was not celebrating. This was not heaven. This was torture. To have come so close and yet be so far from the light. How could it have escaped them? It would take time to run each play through his mind and figure all that out. But he would have that time now. The season was over. They would go home in 2nd place. Not bad, but his team had missed out on the best.

Is that our lives? Are we standing there in the shadows watching others celebrate theirs? He was. Out on the field, out in the light, there was such joy. People were jumping up and down, yelling and laughing and running and hugging! The fireworks went off, the crowd cheered and the winners of this year's World Series "had arrived". The Angels. They were calling it heaven, 7th heaven. After 42 years, they had finally made it. And they celebrated!!

It probably came close to heaven for those players, for those fans, in that moment. Their coach said they had taken it one day at a time. Now he could relax and enjoy what they had accomplished. Yes, the Angels were in "heaven".

Is that how it will be when we arrive in Heaven? Will those who have not made it stand in the shadows and watch us celebrate? Will they know that it is too late, that the game has been played, the last out has been made and there is no turning back? What's interesting is that those on the field, those in the light celebrating did not see those in the shadows. They were too busy being happy, rejoicing, to even notice. Is that why there are no tears in Heaven? Will there be too much joy to notice those left in the shadows? But those in the shadows watched, and they knew it was not their place to be out in the light celebrating. When I saw the tears in the children's eyes, carried away by their father's, it made me sad. I felt as I always do...everyone should have won. I don't like to see the pain on the faces of the team that lost. They tried so hard. They had come so far. They deserved it too....or did they....?

There are rules. You win the most games out of seven, it's yours. No one argues that. That's the way it is. So why do we argue with God's rules? Why do we think they are not fair? You are either washed clean by His Son and step into the light a winner, or you refuse what God has offered and you stay in the shadows. You lose everything when the last out is played, and you never know when that will be. Will the game of life go nine innings, or will it go into overtime giving you another chance to step up to the plate and accept God's offer?

My son Jimm and I went to a game a year or so ago and it lasted into the 15th inning, if I remember right. They had to start turning the lights on by the time this 1:00 o'clock game finished. I figured we got our money's worth that day in baseball. Those players went home tired, but they had had plenty of time to get the game right before it was finished.

Some lives will be like that. Some will have 95-100 years to get it right. Some will not. Some will get only nine innings, and they will be finished. If you're a pitcher in life, you won't even get that. You will be called out of the game early and someone else will come in to finish up for you. You may only have a only a short period of time to get the job done. Sometimes all you get is one batter to pitch to. That's all you're needed for. It's not that you're not important. Hey, you've made it to the Big League, and you're part of the team, but you have a very specific job to do and when it is finished, you are called out of the game. The coach makes that decision. You really have nothing to say about it.

We have a Coach in life, His name is God. He calls the plays, He makes the changes that need to be made in the line-up as the game of life goes on. He has a perfect game plan, even though we may want to argue at times. He knows who will win, and He knows who will lose. He knows how long we will be in the "game" and our reason for being there. He knows who will win the "World Series" and will stand in the light rejoicing when the seasons are over, and who will stand in the shadows crying.

Matthew 8:11-12
"And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. But many Israelites - those for whom the Kingdom was prepared - will be cast into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
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I want to feast when the "World Series" of life is over. I want to sit in the Kingdom of Heaven and celebrate the game that has been played. I want to be in the light of God, not stand in the shadows weeping. It took the Angels 42 years to "arrive", I'm already passed that in my game, and I may have quite a few "innings" left to play, but Phil went home after 16. He must have been a pitcher. He was not in the game long, but he was a very important part of it. He changed the whole game for me. He turned it around when it might have seemed I was falling behind. Perhaps I was distracted by the airplanes flying over, or the jeers by unhappy fans. Perhaps I was getting bored with the whole thing, and I needed a wake-up call. I don't really know God's reason for bringing Phil into the "game", but I am so grateful that He did. With just a few pitches from the mound by my son, I stood up and took notice of what the Coach was doing. Who He had brought into the line-up in my life and where the game was going. I started to enjoy the game more than ever before because it became much more important. Each play becomes significant because I know now that it has eternal reasons for being what it is. Each person becomes a unique part of the "series" because I know God has placed them on the field. The game is perfect, even though it seems there are errors. Those so-called "errors" may be exactly what helps to lead us to that final game, that final out, and into the very light and presence of our Almighty God.

The Giants can come back next year, and the next, and they can try again. It's just a game. It's not life, it's just a part of life.

When we hear that final out called, it is our life, it is our death, and we cannot come back next year. Phil is not coming back. He has gone on to celebrate the victory! The feast! He will never be in darkness again.

Revelation 21:23-25
And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. The nations of the earth will walk in its light, and the rulers of the world will come and bring their glory to it. Its gates never close at the end of the day because there is no night.
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In Heaven the "game" is never over. The gates are never locked. The lights are never turned off.
The celebration continues on and on and on for all of eternity, and the joy that we will know is greater than any joy seen after the 7th game of the World Series has been won. That is almost hard to imagine, a greater joy than we saw on the faces of the Angels last night when that last fly ball was caught in the outfield. I love knowing that our joy will be even greater than that.

What I don't love knowing is that there will be those lost in the shadows. I don't want there to be tears in the dugouts because everyone doesn't win the game. Everyone can win this game of life by simply choosing too. It's that simple. We don't have to know all the game strategies, we don't have to know everything contained in a large rule book, we don't have to start playing the game when we are 5 so we can be "good enough" when we grow up to be allowed to play. All we have to do is to know the Coach. To tell Him we want to "play" and He will lead us and guide us and help us all along the way. The only practice we have to attend is the One He calls us to, which involves "walking" with Him each day of our life. But He makes it easy because on this walk He carries us. I know, it sounds like cheating but it isn't. He knows we are not capable of doing it on our own, and He loves us so much that He wants to help us. The only rule book we have is the Bible and the only rule that we must always follow is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength. And guess what? He gives us the strength too!

God gives us everything we are needing to play the game of life. His only desire is for us to know Him and to finish this game in His Holy Light. He wants that none should perish in darkness!

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think.
No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish,
so he is giving more time for everyone to repent.
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Extra innings!! How many will there be? Only God knows! Don't wait until that last out is made to come out of the dugout to play in the game. It will be too late then! Get out on the field and enjoy it all now! The Coach is calling you! He wants you in the game! He wants to show you all that He has for you! Sitting in the dugout is boring and tiresome and you feel rejected and alone. You're wanted on the team! But the choice is yours, it doesn't belong to the neighborhood bully although he thinks it does. The devil thinks he has control over you, but he doesn't, God does. If you've been bullied around all your life it's time for it to stop. The "winning team" wants you!!

John 15:19
"The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don't.
I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you."
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God chooses us, and the devil hates us. When we run out onto the field to play ball with God, the devil is the bully still sitting in the dugout. He is angry that we have decided to go with God's team. He knows he has already lost the game, he's not a dummy, but he wanted you to lose the game with him. He is the losing team, and he doesn't want to lose all by himself. He wants to take as many down with him as he can. His time is running short and he knows it. It may already be into extra innings...and God is just waiting for you.

Do you think those that submit to good coaching are weak? Do you think they are dumb? Do you think they have no idea what they have gotten themselves into? Or do you think that they trust the person they work for, their coach, and that they know this person has had many years of experience and that they probably know the game even better than they do even after all their years of playing? And because of that, they are willing to go where they are told to go on the field, and to play as they are instructed  to play to get the best out of their performance. This is not weakness in their ability, this is strength in their knowledge of the game because they trust in one who knows more than they do. The coaches intention is not to make them look bad or to lose, his intention is to make them look good and to win the game, and eventually the World Series.
This requires a big person, a strong person, to submit to someone else's instructions in a game that they themselves probably already know better than most people in the world. That's what makes them winners!

In my Bible Study Lesson this week it says:

"The Bible's concept of meekness is submission to the Father's will.
Few things require more strength than submission."
(Beth Moore)

Is it easy to submit? No, I don't think so. It is hard to completely and totally say "I'm yours God. I want your will for my life, no matter what." What's the first thing we think of? Except for my kids God, I want to keep them, oh and my house, I'd really like to not be homeless, and my health God, I really need to stay healthy...and we start taking back these things right after "totally submitting" all things to God. Why do we do this? Because of fear! Because we think God is some great big meanie who wants what is ours and the minute we tell Him He can have it, He will take it from us! Wrong!! That's a lie from the evil one! God doesn't want what we have, He doesn't need what we have, He gave it to us in the first place.

When Phil died, we prayed over him and I said something like this, "We give Phil back to You because You first gave him to us." If God had not given Phil to us for those 16 years, we would not be missing him now. We would never have known him. We would never have had the gift of his love in our lives. We would never have known what we had missed. But we do now, because God first gave him to us and we are so grateful. God gives to us way more than is ever taken away. He gives to us because He loves us and He wants the best for us. Then we get stingy and start telling Him what He can and can't have back! Like we have some control over that by just saying so. God is the Coach. God decides who plays when and who plays where, and whether we fully submit or not is up to us, but it doesn't change the rules of the game. The only thing it changes is how much we enjoy the game while we are here. How much freedom we feel while we are here. How much joy we will have and how much we will know the "Coach" on a personal level.

I feel that having experienced life here with Phil, and now experiencing life here without Phil, is like I have been pulled back in a large slingshot and shot into the air of life. That may sound strange but let me explain. The pulling back is the hard part, the squeezing part, the part that feels so uncomfortable. It is the part of life that hurts and that we would rather not go through, but what happens after that is that we are flung into the air completely free of the gravity of life because we trust God completely to catch us! We are sailing towards a future that holds nothing but light and joy. We see the world from a different angle and it is all fleeting. It doesn't make it any less real, but it doesn't tie us down anymore because we have felt the worst and the worst did not harm us. It only set us free to enjoy the flight, the game. Because every day we live now only brings us closer to our goal, and anyone we have lost who are in Heaven, we will soon see again. Every step, every day, brings us closer to "winning" the game! We are free to fly!

How do you enjoy your life after saying good-bye to your son? By letting God heal your heart. And how do you do that? By completely submitting to His will for your life and trusting Him for everything even when the evil one tells you that if you do that, God will only take more away from you!! It's not true. The more we submit, the more God blesses us with peace and joy and a smooth path for the journey. The devil may strike again. But that's all he can do, and if he does, he will strike out! He is the bully and I refuse to be on his team. I will listen to my Coach and follow His game plan until the final inning of Game Seven of the "World's" Series and I will be on that field of light jumping for joy and it truly will be Heaven, it won't just feel like heaven.

Psalm 103:15
Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
The wind blows, and we are gone -
as though we had never been here.
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The lights were shut down after the celebration ended, and the grass they played on was mowed and hauled away as the field was readied for the next game there. The fans went home and slept, as did the players, and the "heaven" they had experienced blew away as quickly as it had come. It would be remembered, but the joy would fade, and those standing in the darkness would re-emerge another day to play another game and to try again. Their tears would dry and their laughter would return because...

...there's always tomorrow....

or is there?

Living in His peace,
Diane