For those of you who’ve played any sport, you know – there are sweet spots on a ball that if you hit it just right – dead center – you can feel the ping of a perfect hit.
I’m wondering if that analogy could extend to life and just what it might look like when you hit a sweet spot in life?
I learned this concept of the ‘sweet spot’ on the tennis court.
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My dad, a wise teacher on and off the court, taught me the skill of concentrating intently on the bright yellow, frayed, spinning tennis ball as it came towards me over the net – while running to position myself an arm’s length distance from the ball– then, swinging my metal racquet at a right angle to the ground – all the while maintaining my gaze at the yellow spinning sphere until my racquet made its final connection with the ball.
The resulting ‘ping’ as the contact was made sung of a well placed ball and a solid return hit that my opponent would have to scramble deep on the court to return.
Ahhhh!
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Perhaps, you’re a baseball fan and have heard the crack as a baseball hits the bat at the perfect spot – you can hear a home run before you ever see the ball heading high to outfield.
I think in life, too, there are sweet spots. Places that we aim to ‘hit’ in the hope to attain a sweet and good life.
Being at the right place at the right moment. The amazing convergence of timing – of events – of purpose.
I must admit, if I had to guess what a God ordained sweet spot would look like, well, I see some fan fare – perhaps a trumpet blowing, a small 10,000 plus chorus of heavenly beings with harps a strumming and some ballet dancers a leaping. Something wonderful. Sweet, right?
If you’ve read me before, you’ll know – a major purpose in my writing is to take a closer look at our expectations and to align them, rightly, with God’s truth.
Get out the measuring tape and hold it up to our lives and see that we don’t miss the markers. Marks of God’s fingerprints in our lives. Marks of God’s goodness to us. We don’t want to miss Him.
I sometimes miss the marks, through wrong expectations. Thinking of life as a one way ride to:
Good – Better – Best life!
Forgetting, life’s measure is not in our pleasure – or in our stuff – or in our children’s success – but, in the pleasure of God.
Today, I was thinking about some of the Bible ‘greats’ and what their great moments – sweet spots in life – looked like. Some of the points in their life where God’s purpose met with their life’s timing.
I’ll call these: “For Such a Time as This” moments.
Moments that made an impact.
Moments where God showed up in an ordinary man’s life and changed history.
See what you think of just a couple examples of Bible ‘greats’ Sweet Spots:
- Moses’s sweet spot, had to be one of the most stressful moments in his life, standing at the foot of the Red Sea with one million of his people following him and an army chasing them – and he made the momentous decision to take a step into the water – believing God would open up a way before him. And, God did.
- Queen Esther’s famous ‘for such a time as this’ moment was when she approached the king, and the possibility of her own execution by doing this, to request his mercy for her people. She went forth fasting, praying, and in humility – not an Hallelujah chorus type moment, though the outcome was.
- One of my favorite Bible guys, Joseph, the spoiled and favorite son out of ten brothers, so hated by his brothers that they threw him in a pit and he ended up a slave. These not too sweet and savory moments and years in slavery, led him to God’s ultimate purpose for him in providing for his people,through becoming the right hand man to the king. Unexpected glory through difficult circumstances.
God shows up in unexpected moments, often difficult moments. Not always glory filled ones, until His presence comes in and changes the situation.
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord”.
Zechariah 4:6
These Biblical examples perhaps challenge my expectations of how God will work and show Himself in my life.
My own sweet spot in life, is probably my struggle with a chronic health disease. It is here I have been humbled and my heart has been softened and moved by God’s grace – sweetening happens in the oddest of spots.
Some characteristics of these “sweet spot moments”:
- You can know that when you face the wall of difficulties, when life is out of control – it is here – in this place – you can have confident expectation that God will show up. He hears your cry. He won’t leave you alone.
- Your sweet spot moments often require waiting – they will not always happen on your time schedule, or with your expected answer.
- You can let go of the impossible standards and expectations of perfectionism, or a perfect life, and rest in the quiet voice of God to your soul. God knows your true self. God will place just the right calling at just the right moment in your heart with His power to accomplish it. Listen, you can hear His holy whisper.
**Lord, I invite You into my days – I ask You to give me sweet spots in my life where Your goodness is made known. Help me not to miss You and Your workings because of wrong expectations. I want to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps 34:8), through all things. To You be the glory…
Linking Up With: Lyli’s ThoughtProvokingThursdays, Holley’s CoffeeformyHeart, Deb’s Faith’nFriends, #thisdaygodsway
