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Prayers, Grand Canyon and Echoes

“Ask, and God will give to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will open for you. 8 Yes, everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And everyone who knocks will have the door opened.”  Matthew 7:7-8grand_canyon_149612675

I have almost seen the Grand Canyon once.  I was on an early morning flight, criss-crossing 3 times zones to the West.   I knew my flight plan took us right over The Grand Canyon.  So with much anticipation, I slept the entire flight.   And subsequently missed The Grand Canyon.

In truth from 30,000 feet I am sure it just looked like a giant hole in the ground. So I am not sure how much a missed during my little mile high siesta.   The beauty of this great wonder is the expanse.  It is huge, at least I am told.

In this massive expansive hole comes the bouncing sounds of echoes.  Sound travels a lightening fast pace of 342 meters per second and rattles of the walls of the canyon and bounces right back where it came from.  We know this as an echo.

Jesus spoke about echoes to.  He said if we ask, God will give.  If we search, we find.  If we knock, the door opens.  And if we shout into canyons it comes back to us.

My recent experience has more than proven true.  I feel so often like my prayers have traveled at more than 342 meters per second and God’s echoes travel back just as fast.  Please understand, not every prayer bounces off the walls from heaven with an immediate answer.  There some moments of crying out that seem to find the empty expanses and never seem to return.

But there are seasons when the ear of God is leaned in and his voice bounces back my prayers with quick response.  In truth God probably always has it was that I was not listening for the echo.

Echoes at times come in the oddest ways.  Unexpected text or phone calls from an old friend.  A church member letting you know that they have been praying for you when you have just asked if God is hearing you.  The reverberations of heaven come back as fulfilled promises, comfort in times of need and provision at just the right time.

It when you pray one thing and your spouse has prayed the exact same thing without either of you talking about it.  It is the moment the unexpected money shows up to provide for the need.

God is in the business of echoes.  So good ahead, yell into The Grand Canyon of heaven and listen for his response.  You may just hear the echoes of heaven bouncing back.

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When you just know…

Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it. Hebrews 11:1

Wounds tell (1)
It is certainly just indescribable at best.
It was a gift my mama seemed to have that I could only wish to obtain one day.  I first discovered this as a smart mouthed teenage boy.  The gift she had was unmistakable.  After a parental/child disagreement where I believed myself to be right about something I was probably clearly wrong about I huffed, turned to go up the stairs to my bedroom when mom fired off one more verbal shot “don’t you roll your eyes at me.”
Full disclosure, my eyes were facing the other way and all she had view of was my backside which I am surprised did not find a wooden spoon laid upon it.
As I aged out of being a smart mouth teenager into I know slightly know more than you young adult it kept happening.  Mama just knew things.  In the moments of fragile brokenness I would spill out my heart over some sort of crazy scene that was being played out in my life to which mama would say “I already know.”
Finally one day my curiosity was piqued to the point of needing to know how she knew when she unloaded the whole mystery to me: “Jeffrey, I just know.”  Well that solves it.  It is all figured out.  She is some sort of mind reading, future seeing parental unit.
Until it started happening in my life.  The in explainable became only explained with “I just know.”  God had me in transition from state university to a small private Christian college environment.  I looked and looked at school websites avoiding the suggestion of my mother.  Within seconds of the Lee University site opening (it was 1998, it may have been minutes to open), I just knew and apparently so did mama.   Sight unseen, I knew that is where I was transferring.  My tender 20 year old mind had not words to explain it except “I just know.”
Throughout the course of my life there have been a scattering of moments when I had no other explanation for the choice I was making or the direction life was headed other than
“I just know.”
My head now decorated with wisdom and more experience has learned that the just “knowing” is that non-tangible confirming power of God’s spirit.  It is the unseen person of God being seen in the choices we make.   It is the assurance in the plan and direction with zero or very little evidence to tell us it is the correct option.
It seems ludicrous (and not the rapper) to make choices based on just a “feeling”.  But when we journey in faith there are these moments that have no other way of being described as “just knowing”.  There is something about how God operates in situations that challenges us to believe in the “just knowing” and take that step into the unknown with zero visible evidence of the outcome.
So once again, mama was right.  She just seems to know or God keeps telling her before me.

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Lessons from Swings and Misses

“There is no crying in baseball” Jimmy Dugan

baseball-pic.jpg
The smell of fresh cut grass, the dust from freshly chalked lines, the taste of salty sunflower seeds tucked tightly in my cheek…and the sounds of swings and misses.  This was the summation of spring.
To say we struggled at times is stating in lightly.  We were no hit twice.  Struggled to score on many nights.
Tom Hanks character from “A League of Their Own” is famously quoted on diamonds across the globe for these words “there is no crying in baseball.”  Well this is not true in the realm of coaching young boys ages 9-12. In truth, there is a lot of crying in baseball.
Tears from the sting of fastball taken to the backside.  Tears from one more swing and miss. Tears from a loss that was a win within reach.
But here are the lessons from a spring spent hollering for fielding shifts and taking pitches:
1) Keep swinging, eventually you make contact
I would like to take credit as the guru of hitting, but it is probably more the law of probability, yet everyone of our kids this season got a base hit.  To their credit, I could not be happier with their efforts in the batting cages.  They worked to make adjustments and learn and grow.  But it took swinging the games to get a hit.  And they kept swinging.
Life will keep throwing fastballs and changes ups.  There are many days you feel over matched.  But you have to keep swinging.  The only way to get a hit is to keep swinging.
2) Never, ever give up.
In a league where the age ranges from 9 to 12 years old, what you typically don’t want is half your team being 9 years old.  Yet, that is what we had. And our record reflected it. In fact in our first game of tournament pool play we were shelled 20-1.  Yes 20 to 1.
Yet the resolve of these young boys did not waiver.  Less than 24 hours after being beat like a drum they came back and played the best baseball of the year with a huge win.  Three days later matched that effort with another big win.   Two nights later, while we lost the final game of the year, played with more resolve and fight than they showed all year.
It is the simple reminder that while at 9 years old your are only  4’2″ and your opposition is 12 years old and 6′, you still keep fighting. You never give up.  You face the giant, stand in the box and keep swinging.
3) Have fun.
Nothing in life replaces pure joy.  You cannot replace the elation of unexpected double play turned in the eyes of young boys.  No smile is ever as big as the one on the face of young man who just got his first hit or made a big catch in the outfield.
While we are counting wins and losses, what really counts is keeping the game enjoyable.  When the “game” quits being fun, evaluate why you are playing and if you still need to be. That becomes an important life lesson.  As adults, our “games” often quit being fun and we muddle through life without joy.   The game of baseball serves as simple reminder that any moment joy can happen.
So Coach Jeff will hang up his hat one final time today.  My oldest ages out of the league and we are unsure if he will play the next level.  In the words of Roberto Clemente “baseballs been very, very good to me”.