Corkball, Anyone?

“C’mon, everybody! Let’s play corkball,” cries Papa at the peak of a nice, summer day.

The family splits into teams as we prepare to participate in this time-honored tradition. Instead of baseball or football, we play corkball. It works like this:

Instead of a bat, we use a broomstick (without the broom head), and instead of a ball, we use the cork from a wine bottle (we don’t drink wine, so I’m not sure how we find the cork). Papa (my grandfather) wraps the cork in white tape so that we can find it when hit into the woods. To play, the family splits in half. One half catches in the outfield (just like baseball), and the other hits with the bat.

However, this game differs greatly from the average American sport. To pitch the cork, the pitcher must “thump” the cork by gripping with the thumb and flicking with the middle finger--not easy. Additionally, the rules differ from baseball or softball. The hitter continues hitting and scoring runs until the catcher catches the cork or until he hits a foul cork. Also, the hitter never runs when he hits the cork; the family keeps track of the runs. However, the outfielders can catch the cork in the air or on the second strike, and the hitter will be out.

Why should I tell you this? Well, I cannot play this game to save my life. I sat with my 10-year-old cousin, Nicholas, on the swing while waiting to hit. The catcher had recently caught his corkball, causing him a wee bit of sadness. In an effort to encourage him, I stated, “Don’t worry. You play this game better than me. I am terrible!”

Unexpectedly, he admonished me with this: “You keep saying that you’re so bad at this game, but if you never try, you will not get any better. Stop talking about how bad you are and go out there and do it!”

Out of the mouths of babes, huh? I can say for sure that I was not expecting this from him. I thought I would encourage him, but he encouraged me. While mulling this over in my mind, I was reminded of our walks with Christ as Christians. So often, we complain to God about the pain we carry or the shadows that darken the doors of our hearts. We cry to him for help, but we do not feel God’s comfort; we do not feel His love or assistance.

Rather than live in repetitive self-pity, God calls us to step out in faith and trust Him with both our lives and our thoughts. While God provides the healing, it requires a personal decision to accept the healing and break the cycle of brokenness that we know so well. Unfortunately, many of us refuse this decision because of our habitually demeaning thought processes.

Later that week, Nicholas’s older brother, Nathan, gave me this advice: “Actions follow thoughts.”
Here’s what the Bible states about the war in our minds:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8, ESV).

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock” (Isaiah 26:3-4, ESV)

Part of trusting in God means living like the redeemed (“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV)). Even though things may not seem to line up right away, we must trust God with our thoughts, leaving room for Him to take action. Otherwise, our doubtful thoughts may materialize into mistrustful actions, as we take our lives into our own hands.

Let’s leave the steering wheel to God, OK? I know He knows where to drive us, and for that we pause and make a conscience effort to think along the lines of freedom. To Him be the glory for our healing and wholeness!