Anything can happen on any day. It’s definitely a cliche in any sport, but Baseball is definitely the sport that supports it the most. In Football, the worst teams go somewhere between zero and four wins on the season. In Baseball, the worst teams of all time (barring some truly horrible teams from the pre-depression era game) won at least fourty games, or about 1/4. You can be pretty confident that at least a couple times a week, that the balls your team hits will drop in whereas their knocks will go right at someone. It’s a game with chance at the forefront; advanced metrics chasing the realities of the game have been forced to conclude as such. Hitters and Pitchers are given huge paydays or lose their jobs over spikes in BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play), a major indicator of luck. It’s this factor that keeps players going out there day in and day out. Crash Davis in Bull Durham notes that one “groundball with eyes” or “dying quail” per week is a 30 point jump in batting average, and suddenly you’re a major leaguer instead of a AAA scrub. These players put doubt aside and know that, truly, any day they can go out there and be the hero. They just need things to break right.

1 Samuel 17: 41-47

And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with his sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.

David walked into that battle outmatched in very obvious ways. That said, he did have a plan; he had a sling and five smooth stones. A talented slinger in those days actually had the advantage in a fight against a single enemy when fighting in a wide open field. He knew that all he had to do was execute his game plan, and things would work out. The difference between baseball and David is that baseball is influenced by luck; David was backed by the almighty God. David knew that overwhelming odds and powerful men were nothing when facing God. So what do we take from this? Well, if baseball players can put so much faith in luck that they continue to fight losing games and minor league seasons with the hope that it will work out, how much more faith should we have in a God that has proven himself? We know that, in Christ, that God will bless our efforts when done in faith. We know that, even in Death, we are redeemed and will be with God in heaven. All we don’t know are the semantics of how tomorrow will go. Take that step out in faith today. Nothing is luck when we’re following God; he has his hand over everything. Let God deal with the semantics of whatever he’s leading you to do, and just trust that he will bless your efforts as he will. There may be uncertainty, sure, but God won’t forget us. If you have something in your life you’re scared to do, even though you know it is God’s plan for you, take another step towards it today even if you don’t know how the rest will go. If you don’t have anything, pray today that God gives you something that requires faith to step out in. These trials will test your faith, but you’ll come out on the other end all the stronger.