As a Pastor, I have been told several times after completing my sermon that it was a “home run”. At the time I wasn’t sure what that meant, but later learned it meant they enjoyed the message.

It is that time of year when we start to attend Baseball and Softball Games with the idea of sitting out in the bleachers in the warm weather and experiencing the warm breeze move across our face. It takes me back to my childhood when I joined a softball team, it was a recreational summer league. We would attend practice two to three times a week and had a game once a week. I played from the time I was seven years old until my freshman year in college. I loved it, yes maybe I am a tomboy in many ways, but what I enjoyed most was there wasn’t so much emphasis on “winning” as there was on good sportsmanship, working together as a team, learning how to get along with others, and forming a cohesive group to join in a competitive way. Overall it was just “plain fun”.

Since I was blessed with being “left handed”, and since I was the only left handed player on the team, adjustments had to be made. I threw the ball with the wrong hand and when going up to bat, I stood on the “wrong side of the plate.” This worked to my advantage and sometimes to my disadvantage, but overall it was a positive outcome. I remember seeing the face on the pitcher of the opposing team, when going up to bat, “oh, she is left handed, I have to readjust.” I was teased during my childhood about being left handed, and yes in many ways, it is a right handed world.  

Being on a team with other girls, I felt a loyalty to them. When I would go up to bat, I would feel the obligation and the responsibility to carry through for them. We learned to lean on one another, if one fell down the other stood up. Standing at the plate, I was being observed by everybody at the game, and had the feeling of being all alone. But I wasn’t alone, the Lord was with me. As I would swing the bat and crack the ball, if I did get a hit, it would go into the right f ield instead of the left. Again, I would throw the other players off since I was left handed. I would sometimes get a home run, or a base hit or maybe I would miss it altogether, but I knew it was okay, because winning wasn’t the goal of the game, the bond with my sisters was.

When spreading the gospel, many times we strike out, we get a base hit or we get a home run. At our church, Gardens of Divine Hope, we work in community gardens accompanied by other gardeners. The planting is not only to help the hungry, but to plant the seeds of Christ. When we plant these seeds, sometimes it is a strike out, sometimes it is a base hit, but sometimes it is a home run and we bring somebody to Christ. When people find out that a church is helping them in the garden, and when the question is, “what church are you with and what do you do”, that opens the door for a home run. Strive for those home runs.

Philippians 3:14 “I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus is calling us.”

Colossians 3:1-2, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

“Let God speak to your heart about what it means to keep your eye on the ball as you’re building belief.”

Prayer



Dear Lord:

Allow our love of Jesus Christ to extend into our communities with vigor and strength. As we spread the Gospel, we see the reward and divine favor moving into the garden of hope, where Jesus will come into our hearts offering unconditional love. As we see our world in a glimmer of confusion and doubt, solidify our faith, make it stronger, as we know you are the one who carries the winning blessing.

By Pastor Karen Schneider

Pastor

Gardens of Divine Hope

A Loving Ministry | Gardens of Divine Hope Inc. | Colorado