26 Oct Course Correction

Seventy years ago, this past June 8, a routine baseball move was made. No one realized it then, and few know about it now, but it turned out to be a decision that would dramatically impact baseball for decades.

The Brooklyn Dodgers optioned a left-handed rookie pitcher to Montreal to make room for another lefty, pitching legend Sandy Koufax. The rookie was impressive in the minor leagues but struggled in the big leagues. He had spent two seasons with the Dodgers, pitching 13 innings over eight games. Surely the young man had to be dejected. His baseball dream is over. Ah, not quite.

That young pitcher was Tommy Lasorda, who would have two decades of overwhelming success with the now-Los Angeles Dodgers, as their manager; two-time World Series Champion, two-time manager of the year, and his bust in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. Lasorda had Hall of Fame talent. He just needed a course correction. They often come following what feels like permanent failure. Consider the apostle Paul.

Paul wasn’t an aspiring rookie. He thought he was a hall-of-famer known as Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee. We learn of him in the Book of Acts, murderously persecuting Christians, fiercely defending the Law of Moses that Jesus came to fulfill and the traditions that went with it. Saul needed a course correction. He was playing on the wrong team. He and the other Pharisees had come to worship God’s law, rather than God Himself. Paul was on the road to Damascus to persecute Christians when Jesus executed a course correction that put Saul on the Path to Him.

3 As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” 5 “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! 6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Acts 9:3-6 (NLT)

Yes, Jesus would indeed tell Saul what he must do. He blinded Saul and sent him on to Damascus, where he met a saint named Ananias, who God used to heal him. Instead of a new jersey number, Saul would get a new name: Paul, an Apostle of Christ. And he would spread the Good News of Jesus Christ with even greater zeal than Saul had for persecuting Christians.

What about you?  Did you have a dream for your life that you were sure God was going to fulfill that has ended like Tommy Lasorda’s pitching career did? Take heart! Ask God to show you a course correction and be prepared for Him to show up and show off in your life!

Pastor Jerry Bader