Not Good Enough

When I was a kid, my dream was to be a professional baseball player. I always wore the hat of my favorite team. My friends and I played baseball whenever we had a chance. Often, my brother and I would go to the park near our house and watch the kids’ baseball games. We wanted to join a team, but we couldn’t because many of the games were on Sabbath.

So, I had to settle for playing my own baseball games. There were only four of us who usually played: my younger brother Steve, my friend Jacob, and me. Sometimes Jacob’s little sister wanted to play, too, but we didn’t always let her play.

When you only have four people, baseball is a bit different. You have only two people on each team, and each person has to play many positions. We had to make up a lot of our own rules so we could play with four people.

Even though I loved baseball, I was really bad at it. When it was my turn to bat, I couldn’t hit the ball. I would have struck out all the time, except that we changed the rules so you could have unlimited strikes. When it was my turn to be the pitcher, the batters were afraid of me. You see, I was more likely to hit the batter than to throw a strike.

Some of my other friends wanted me to play basketball with them. But I could never make a basket. If I had the ball, someone from the other team always stole it from me. If they had the ball, I couldn’t stop them from scoring.

My other friends wanted to play lacrosse, but I couldn’t play that game, either. I couldn’t catch or throw the ball correctly using a lacrosse stick.

It’s easy to feel like there are too many things we can’t do. Sometimes, even if we try, we aren’t successful. But God has given everyone some kind of ability. In my case, even though I couldn’t play sports, I was good at computers.

Paul said this to his student Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:6: “That is why I remind you to help God’s gift grow, just as a small spark grows into a fire. God put his gift in you when I placed my hands on you” (NIrV).

We should try to find the gifts and abilities that God has given us, then practice those things. Even if we aren’t good at some things, if we practice God’s gifts, we’ll be successful.