Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:00 — )
PROGRAM D-8092
What can you do when life throws you a curve ball? That baseball term, a curve ball, has become a cliché we use when something unexpected happens to us—something unwanted and unplanned. Life has a way of throwing monkey wrenches—curve balls—into our plans, our dreams, and our hopes for the future.
Recently, a friend told me of her upcoming surgery for breast cancer. She’s still a young woman. She is active in her church, serves the Lord, and honors him with her time and money. How could something like this happen to her? She said to me, “Life has definitely thrown me a curve ball.”
In Psalm 11:3 David lamented “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” When you get that medical report that says there is something seriously wrong in your body, maybe even life-threatening, what can you do? You feel as though your body has betrayed you and it’s you against your body! The foundations of your life seem to be crumbling.
Thankfully, David goes on in the next verse to say, “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes everyone on earth; his eyes examine them” (Psalm 11:4). When your health foundations are being destroyed, you must once again return to basic theology: do you really believe that God is still on the throne and that he has not lost sight of you? Now you learn what it means to walk by faith and not by sight.
I don’t mean to imply that an unexpected and unfavorable medical report is not frightening or discouraging. No matter how strong your faith is, when you hear that diagnosis, it strikes fear in your heart. It is then that you have to turn to what you know is true and, whether you feel it or not, you recite the truth you know.
Psalm 56:3 is a very simple statement of faith. David wrote, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” It is simple—but when that curve ball comes your way, it is not easy. I understand that. Quote it anyway—through clenched teeth, tears, and doubts, if necessary! Regardless, state what you know to be truth and choose to believe it against all your doubts and feelings. To me, that is how you walk by faith and not by sight—not by feelings—even when life throws you a curve ball.