Potty Prayers

²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. — Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)

The other night I was playing with my church’s women’s softball team. It was my turn to hit. I stepped into the batter’s box and watch the first pretty pitch go by — “Strike” the umpire said. In this league you only get 2 strikes (instead of 3) unless you foul one off — supposedly it hurries the game along. I got set in my head how everything was going to go with this next pitch. I was going to hit the ball no matter where it was (inside or outside of the plate, high or low) and then I was going to run. All I can tell you is that I swung and “whoosh” was all I heard. I completely missed the ball by about 3 feet. I walked back to the dugout shaking my head. What happened?

It hit me today why I missed the ball completely. I had taken my eyes off the ball. I had lost focus. I was concentrating so much on the way I was standing in the batter’s box and how I was going to swing the bat, that I totally missed the ball — the whole point of being there in the first place.

I do that with Jesus too. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I had done all the research, gone to all the classes, and had it perfectly staged in my head. Contractions would start. They would be painful but I would go to the hospital and get medicine. I would be ok. They’d tell me to push when it was time. Baby girl would be born. All would be well. So many times we get caught up in how we think things are going to go that we lose sight of Jesus. It seems that we’re walking in a fog. That’s what I was in the other night — a fog. My head was not in the softball game or focused on what it should be focused on.

Really soak up these words from one of my favorite hymns, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus:

O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s a light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!

Refrain

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
Over us sin no more hath dominion—
For more than conquerors we are!

Refrain

His Word shall not fail you—He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!

Refrain

Prayer: Oh Lord, thank you so very much for reminding me to be focused on You. Help me not only to start out my day focused on You, but to continue through everything I do totally focused on You. There are so many things going wrong in this world, and I dare say most of it is not important when we look upon Your face. Thank you for conquering sin for me because I am weak and couldn’t even come close to doing it myself — no matter how perfectly pictured it was in my head!