Daily Guideposts 2016: 14-Day Reading PlanSample

Left-hander David Price is one of the best, most consistent pitchers in Major League Baseball, so as a New York Yankees fan I didn’t relish the fact that my team would be facing him on the mound, pitching for the Detroit Tigers that day. He was in the midst of another great season, even a possible second Cy Young Award. But an amazing thing happened. In the second inning, the Yankees, who were mired in a terrible batting slump, got nine straight hits off Price, tying a long-held MLB record, and scored eight runs, driving the shell-shocked hurler to an early shower.

I’d like to think the Bombers’ bats got hot, but the truth was, this all-star pitcher just didn’t have his stuff that day. In fact, he had never failed so miserably in his entire career. I probably could have gotten a hit off him. Usually a pitcher of Price’s prowess guts out a start when he doesn’t have his best stuff, laboring to do what’s necessary to keep his team in the game. They call it “grinding.”

There are days when I feel like I’m grinding, when I don’t have my best stuff, when my faith falters a little—until I remind myself that those are the days when I need faith the most. And then there are those days, like the one Price had, when out of the blue your whole game just goes to pieces. Nothing seems to work . . . good, bad, or otherwise.

Somewhere in Price’s historic failure there was a lesson for me. That remarkable game reminded me there will be days when I can’t seem to get anything right, when even my best efforts are for naught. All God asks of me then is that I trust Him, even with my failures, and believe that the next day will be better.

FYI: Five days later Price took the hill again and pitched a shutout.

Father, today and every day I offer all my efforts—good, bad, or otherwise—to You.

—Edward Grinnan

Digging Deeper: Ecclesiastes 9:7