“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish, and he said, “I called out of my distress to the Lord, and He answered me. I called for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice. For You threw me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current flowed around me. All Your breakers and waves passed over me. So I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ Water encompassed me to the point of death. The deep flowed around me, seaweed was wrapped around my head. I descended to the base of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, but You have brought up my life from the pit, Lord my God. While ]I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple. Those who are followers of worthless idols abandon their faithfulness, But I will sacrifice to You with a voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord.” Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.” (Jonah 2:1-10 NASB)
Two boys went to a nearby park to get ready for the little league baseball season. It was a chilly day in late March, so I guess you can call it “Spring Training.” The younger son got to bat first, and the older son was standing in center field, just behind second base so he would be positioned to go either to move fast to his left or his right to catch the ball. The father did the pitching. Each son was going to bat until they made three outs.
The younger son strikes out on three executive pitches. The older son shouts “Strike three!” He accompanies his words with an exaggerated umpire imitation that seemed to last for minutes. The batting practice resumes. The younger son strikes out again in three pitches. The older son does his umpire imitation again, although this time with a little more excitement and energy. The father glances at him with displeasure, shakes his head, and starts pitching to the younger son again. It may be sounding like a broken record, but the child strikes out again on three consecutive pitches. The older brother starts running toward Homeplate to take his turn. The father turns around quickly and sends him back to his position in the field. The older son says, “But that was his third strike and his third out!” The father does not engage in any debate. He just tells the older son to assume his position in the field. The younger son strikes out three more times on three consecutive pitches. The older son is standing in the field with his baseball glove tossed to the ground and his arms crossed. He is wondering what is going on. The dad tells the younger son, “Here we go, one more chance. Give it your best effort. Try to hit it!” Here comes the first pitch. The result, strike one. Here comes the second pitch, strike two. One more pitch and then, on this seventh at-bat, on the last pitch, the younger son hits the ball so hard that it sails right over the head of the older son.
After retrieving the ball, the son runs it back to his father and again heads toward Homeplate to take his turn. The father stops him and does a little life coaching. He says, “Sometimes son, in order for people to get it right, they just need another chance.”
That’s the way it is on this Christian journey. Our church choir sang a song that proclaimed how our Heavenly Father gives us one more chance. The words say, “Thank you Lord for giving me another chance. It could have been the other way. It could have been the other way.” Our choir director, her heart in the song, realized the mercy of God and change it at times in the rendition of the song to replace “could” with “should” or “would.” You see our Father knows that at times, sometimes, His children just need another chance to get it right. Oh praise God!
Now just don’t praise Him with your voices, but praising Him in your effort to get something that you have been doing wrong! It might be an activity, an attitude, or an aggravated demeanor that you project, but listen to me. God has given you and He has given me another chance to hit it out of the park spiritually and get it right! Thank God for His mercy without which, we would not have another chance today! Hang in there! Swing away and have a wonderful day! Your “batting percentage” will increase in time! Be blessed!
“Certainly the faithful love of the Lord hasn’t ended; certainly God’s compassion isn’t through! They are renewed every morning. Great is Your faithfulness,” (Lamentations 3:22-23 Common English Bible)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King