The Pick Off Play

The summer between my junior and senior year of high school I was playing American Legion baseball. I was having one of my best seasons in what was the toughest league I had ever played. I remember one night a left hander was on the mound for the opposing team. In my first at bat I singled with the bases empty. I was a pretty good hitter, but stealing bases was not something that anyone expected me to do. My high school coach used to say that I could run all day in a shoe box. When on base I didn't get much of a lead because I was afraid I might get picked off. To make an out on a pick off-play is very humiliating. I was on first taking a short lead, the pitcher went into his stretch and made his move to what I thought was home plate. In that split second I started leaning toward second base. However, that sneaky southpaw tossed the ball to first instead of home. I was caught dead in my tracks. The pitcher had fooled me with his crafty moved. There was nothing I could do. The pick off play worked and my base hit had been for naught.

Sometimes life is like the pick-off play. The season is going great. Everything seems to be falling into place with no rainouts, only clear skies. Work is good, school is good, life is good and God is great. If life was a baseball game you would be batting 1000. Feeling wonderful about how well you are doing you edge a little further away from God than you should. You are confident in your ability to lean closer and closer on your own to the next base on your path. Then it happens. That crafty serpent, your enemy, catches you not paying attention. He knows exactly when you have stepped too far away from the One who keeps you safe. Quicker than you can blink your eyes the enemy picks you off, and you find yourself sitting on the bench humiliated by your lack attentiveness.

I have been picked off in the game of baseball by a crafty lefty. I have also been been gunned down by the crafty moves of Satan. Peter refers to this as being devoured by the devil who prowls around like a roaring lion. As Christians we have the power to avoid Satan's pick-off plays. Peter say, "Resist him, standing firm in the faith..."  James says practically the same thing, "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." We have to have a gameplan to avoid being picked off by that crafty serpent. It is really very simple. Submit to God and resist the devil. Begin each day in submission to the Father. Depend on Him to keep you safe as you resist the devil's sly moves. Do this and you will send Satan to the showers every day.

Genesis 3:1a Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.

From my book: Preachers, Teacher and Other Sinners

.