Cooperstown Confession

Game Day

It was Joe’s first game at Cooperstown and he was on the bench. I told myself to trust the process but sharp memories of days gone by and the spirit-breaking of another son as he sat on the bench, gripped my heart. I was already overwhelmed by the morning with tired, hot, cranky bones and an attitude of parched unsettling. I felt disgruntlement creep up from my toes. As fear began to take a foothold, I knew I needed the breath of God to turn me around, to redeem my attitude and revive me.

As I prayed for God to intervene, I thought of how my devotional life had been disconnected as of late but I opened to Oswald Chamber’s July 28 anyway and read:

“God’s purpose is for me
to depend on Him and on His power now.
If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life,
the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me…
What He desires for me is that
I see Him walking on the sea
with no shore, no success, no goal in sight
but simply having the absolute certainty
that everything is alright.”
Mark 6:45-50

Remaining calm, faithful and unconfused in the absolute certainty that all is well. I repeated those words over and over and let their living water sink into the dryness of my fear.
When I looked up, Joe was playing third and smiling and, to my surprise, I found my heart was smiling too.

AMRB, 2019