the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Daily Devotionals
Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
This past Monday I renewed one of my yearly rites of spring. I watched the first home game of the Cincinnati Reds baseball season on Opening Day. Opening Day has long been one of my favorite times of the year. It's all the excitement for the coming season of baseball, the hopes and dreams, the fruition of the long winter months of negotiations with new players and the inclusion of what are hoped to be key figures in a run to the World Series.
Already this year, the newest Red has proven his value. Joe Randa, picked up from the Kansas City Royals of the American League, has shown that he likes National League pitching. In Monday's opener He hit a walk off home run to win the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. Last night he hit a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning which proved to be the margin of victory in that game.
So far, Danny Graves, one of the premier relief pitchers in all of baseball, has not had to come in to save a game although he did pitch the ninth inning for the win on Opening Day. Graves is a closer. He is the pitcher that the manager brings in at the end of a close game with the Reds on top to make sure that the other team doesn't score any runs and win the game. When Danny Graves does his job right he is credited with a "save." In other words, he saved the game by shutting out the opponents when it counts the most.
It's the game of life. You have battled through the early inning trying to figure out how to handle all the stuff that life is throwing at you. There were times that you did what you thought was best but it didn't work. Then there were the times where you did nothing at all and things came together. Soon it will be the bottom of the ninth. The game is in hand but you need to secure it. Then God sends in His closer.
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17 "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' Copyright 2010 © Tom Kelley. 'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: 1) A proper credit must be given to the author at the end of each story, along with their complete bio and a link to https://www.studylight.org/ 2) 'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' content may not be arranged or "mirrored" as a competitive online service.
