It’s a common picture. A young boy playing baseball. Stuck out in right field. Busy picking grass or watching bugs crawl while the game flies around him. Eventually, maybe even a ball comes his way, only to roll right by as he kicks dirt and blows bubbles with his gum. Oblivious. If his attitude and aptitude don’t change, he will find himself riding the ole pine come little league.

I wasn’t going to write a blog post today. I also wasn’t going to read my Bible today. But after I couldn’t find the book I was looking for, a search that ensued after my wife and I couldn’t find anything to watch on television, I ended up in Isaiah again. Insight was shared, even though I was looking to be distracted, not discipled.

54:2 – Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.

This was very exciting to read, because lately it feels as if every scripture I approach tells me of something else I need to combat or address, some obstacle I need to remove.  It was as if God was saying, “Ok, kid, get ready to go back  in the game.”  I love sports. What I love more is a good sports analogy. To carry this one forward, I have been on the bench for a long time. So long that I have splinters in places where splinters are extra painful. I was beginning to think I’d never get back on the field. I had even started to get fuzzy on the rules of the game, even the reason you play the game.

So, to hear Coach tell me, prepare yourself, enlarge your tent, get ready, I immediately got pumped. I almost ran out of the dugout and onto the field before realizing that He hadn’t given me specific instructions just yet. What position I was playing. So, I curbed my enthusiasm for a moment. And now will do so with the analogy. It’s worked hard enough. But it was a good one, right?

I continued reading in Isaiah, and a few chapters later, Coach was back. (sorry, I really will bench this analogy soon).

58:7 – 10 – Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter, when you see the naked to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn…Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I…your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 

I think I’ve been waiting for some big theme, a cause to rally around, some way of organizing my activity. But God is saying, “You could just start by opening your eyes to the immediate opportunities I present to you and go from there.”  Novel concept. I’ve been too busy looking deep inside to find some complicated purpose with blinders on to the world around me.  It may very well be that God has a cause for me, a theme, but I need to start by responding to the immediate needs He identifies, and He will reward my faithfulness by shining light where there once was only darkness.  Back to the analogy for just a bit longer, it’s just like being the visiting team in baseball. You have to catch what’s hit to you before you can step up to the plate to hit a home run. (Man, I’m even getting tired of it now.)  

The most significant part about this revelation for me is that it came from the very chapter that started it all. Way back when I began this journey, the first passage I read, the one that reminded me God is not a drive thru, was Isaiah 58: 1-6. If only I had kept reading for a few verses, I could have skipped right to the thick of things instead of circling the drain for 18 months. The funny thing is that at the time of reading the first part of this chapter, I was miles away from being able to appreciate the last half of it, despite the proximity of the verses. And despite the now glaringly simple message being delivered.

The tent is now open as wide as I can pull it. And I’m happy to be back in the game. I can’t wait for a ball to be hit my way now, because I’m ready. I’m in position. I’m alert. And I’m going to catch it.