Month: August 2016

At The Crease

I often ask God to speak to me. My requests become more frequent and more yearning as years go by. I try to filter out distractions like the world around me and my own myriad of thoughts, but most of the time I fail. It’s not a bad second best to rely on the ‘straightforward’ text of the Bible, and on the teachings I receive from various sources. And when I pray, although it usually feels like a monologue, I know that in my own description of situations and questions about them, in seeking to understand how to respond to life, God often puts the answer right onto my tongue or into my mind. But sometimes I don’t want to approach God with my own agenda, I just want to sit down and listen to what He has on His mind for me.

Sadly I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve experienced His direct intervention shaking up my thoughts. Probably I shouldn’t be sad. I should be grateful to have experienced any interventions at all, and I should be thankful for the way He ‘indirectly’ directs my life. I don’t have to feel His presence to know He is there, subtly guiding me, at all times.

Recently I’ve been redoubling my efforts to foster the right environment to hear His voice. Yesterday as I decluttered my mind and invited Him in, an image faded into view. I can’t be certain that it wasn’t my own idea, because I had watched my first live Test Match a few days earlier, and the image was a cricketer, but if it wasn’t God who put the image there, He certainly used it to remind me about some sacred truths.

cricket-1428978-2

Image credit: http://www.freeimages.com/photographer/shed-59131

 

The first thing I noticed was that he was a batsman. As I saw the protection he was wearing, in particular his helmet, and the bat which could be used defensively like a shield or offensively like a sword, I thought about the armour of God…

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 6:14-17

Then I saw that the batsman was surrounded by close fielders, which told me that the bowler – who I couldn’t see – was a spinner, and that his deliveries might swerve and bounce in any direction to try and fool the batsman…

Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,
from men whose words are perverse,
who have left the straight paths
to walk in dark ways,
who delight in doing wrong
and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways.

Proverbs 2:12-15

I had the sense, too, that this was not a specialist batsman. He was most likely a bowler who had come to the crease towards the end of the innings, and so was weak and vulnerable…

But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Ultimately, this batsman’s most likely aim was to keep up a strong defence, stand firm while his teammate tried to make the runs for victory or while his team sought to play out the remaining overs for a draw…

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.

1 Corinthians 16:13

I’m sure that if you’re a Christian who enjoys cricket you could find many more analogies between the game and spiritual life, but I don’t want to labour the point, rather just describe the thoughts that came to my mind immediately. Wherever the image came from, I’m thankful that God has used it to remind me about the patience, resilience, wisdom and strength He has given me, and my duty to use those gifts for His glory.

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