God's Curveball

Three-Fingers Brown might hold the title of Best Curveball Pitcher in History, but I’m here to tell you that God has a mean curveball too, and I was recently at bat when He used it. I was not feeling well all day, so I went to bed early that Saturday night, anticipating my travel to Macon RYDC on Sunday after church for the monthly birthday celebration. I have gotten into a pattern of planning a Bible study lesson at the beginning of the month and then tweaking it throughout the month for all the facilities. The lesson I had for them that Sunday, the last party of the month, had worked well in the other facilities, so I saw no reason to change the routine. I had practiced my swing and was ready to step up to the plate.

And then it happened. 3:30 in the morning. God’s curveball. I woke suddenly and heard “Faith like a mustard seed” in the quiet of my spirit. Now fully awake, I prayed silently that God would reveal the significance of that scripture when I needed to know, which I assumed was not at 3:30 a.m. STRIKE ONE. I went back to sleep.

When my alarm went off at 6:00 a.m., I hardly had time to hit the snooze when once again I heard “Faith like a mustard seed.” More cognizant than I had been a couple hours earlier, this time my batter’s stance took an argumentative tone. “Lord, I don’t feel well, and I don’t have time to plan another lesson now!” STRIKE TWO. (Am I the only one who needs a 2 x 4 sometimes?)

A cup of coffee later I was in Bible study and prayer time when the third pitch came—Mark chapter 4. You guessed it—the parable of the mustard seed. This time I was ready to listen as God was undeniably leading me to change my lesson for Macon that afternoon. No strikeouts here this time. The comfort zone was not an option, and a few hours later I was sharing mustard seed faith with 14 young men at the Macon RDYC.

Two of those young men were Charlie and Demarius (not their real names). Both listened intently as I told them at the beginning this was not the lesson I had prepared, but that God had a specific message for somebody in that room. By the time I finished, there was no doubt in my mind who it was. Charlie and Demarius called me over to their table. Charlie had a New Testament in his pocket, and before I even sat down with them, he said, “It was me. I’m the one who needed that lesson.” As we talked further, he shared that Demarius had asked him just the day before what that very scripture meant, which led to their discussion about how hard it is to keep your faith when you’re locked up and need answers. The lesson God had led me to share (or should I say forced?) was an affirmation to these guys straight from the throne room of heaven, and they were acutely aware of that. It was beautiful to see these two guys encouraging each other with Scripture and leaning on each other for support.

Thank God for curveballs!