Take me out to the....Thunderstorm?

My favorite Minor League Baseball team is the Corpus Christi Hooks, and for good reason, my girlfriend is from Corpus Christi. Personally I don’t really follow Minor League sports and for that matter neither does she, but whenever I am visiting her and the Hooks are in town we go to a game. On the Southwest side of San Antonio, far away from the Riverwalk and the Alamo in a very undesirable part of the city, sits Nelson W. Wolff Stadium. Wolff is your average AAA ballpark, very simple and very small only seating 4 or 5 thousand. Most of the South side of San Antonio is very flat and you can see for what seems like miles. As we began to sing “Take me out to the ballgame” during the 7th inning stretch I noticed lightening far off in the distance. As more lightening flashed through the sky I noticed that the wind was beginning to pick up. In every direction I could see flashes in the sky that looked like outstretched fingers reaching but for only a second and then they were gone. The wind was stronger now; my program and empty soda cup were both blown off the top of the dugout that I had used as a tabletop. I was so caught up in the commotion I forgot the game was still going on. I couldn’t believe we were all still sitting there watching the game as if nothing was happening around us. I’m not one to worry about storms since I was raised in Alabama but I was beginning to grow a little concerned. As the storm grew even closer the game entered the 9th inning. The flags on the center field wall were whipping so hard from the wind I thought they were about to be torn off and blown away. Unfortunately the Hooks went 3 up 3 down and the Home team was up to bat. The storm was right on top of us. With lightening and thunder all around us the game continued. We began to head for the car when we heard it. A crack so loud it could have been thunder, but it wasn’t, it was a bat. The batter for the San Antonio Missions hit a walk off homerun to end the game with a score of 1-0. Just as he rounded the bases and headed to home plate the bottom fell out.
I know we can all relate to this. I’m not one for sports metaphors but we have all been in situations like that. Life can be difficult sometimes. Storms rage all around us and it seems like there is more pressure than we can handle. I know that batter must have felt enormous pressure. My mother always quotes this passage from Proverbs, “Trust in the LORD with all you heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” My prayer this week is that we begin to trust God through the storms in our lives and know when everything is crashing in around us he is there and he can be our strength through it until the end.

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