Balks of Life

Anyone that knows me knows how much I like baseball.

I enjoyed playing baseball growing up and I like baseball now that I’ve grown up.

There’s something in baseball called a ‘balk.’

A balk is when the pitcher deceives a baserunner by making them think they’re gonna throw a pitch. It’s one of those rules that’s often left up to an umpires interpretation of deception. It’s also a rule with a laundry list of what the pitcher can do and what the pitcher can’t do.

Sometimes, life can feel like it balks us.

• We expect one result, but we get another.
• Someone we know seemed to be trustworthy, but they behaved differently.
• A situation seemed to be perfect, but turned out difficult.
• A project seemed sure to do well, but goes terribly wrong.
• Something seemed worthwhile, but ended up being a waste of time.

During the ‘balks’ of life, it can be tempting to completely do a 180 and try something else entirely.

But, what if the result we got happened because of something that was slightly off?
What if the situation was just what we needed, but the bump in the road was our opportunity to improve?

Don’t abandon just because it seems to be the only option.

Sometimes, failure is just an opportunity to begin… more intelligently.

Don’t let the balks of life rattle your faith in God’s call.

LEGALISM: My Recovery From This Addiction

I don’t know when it started, I just remember when God spoke directly to me and told me it was wrong.

You see, I’m a recovering legalist.

There was a time in my life when I used to think it was up to me to do all the right things. To have more check marks than x marks on my list of do’s.

I’d even see people who were doing things and think about how much better I was because I wasn’t doing them.

It wasn’t like I didn’t have issues. It was just that mine weren’t as easy to see, weren’t as easy to point out. I’d see someone doing something in public that I thought was wrong and think about how much better I was because no one saw my junk.

What I came to realize is that many of these things weren’t undeniably wrong, they were just my way of judging and getting a leg up on others.

It took me some time, but I finally came to realize that God isn’t keeping score to see if He loves me or not, that’s already a given.

What He does care about is that I’m surrendered to Him, that I seek hard after Him.

Ultimately, I had to realize that God just wants me. Not my deeds, not my perfection, just me.

It’s freed me beyond explanation. What I do now, instead of trying to see another’s sins, I seek to be like Jesus.

The actions will come with it.

I’m Jonathan and im a recovering legalist.

Are you?