[367 words]
By 1989, baseball player Nolan Ryan reached an incredible 5,000 strikeouts, and all those no-hitters. Ryan was a phenomenal baseball player.
In his rookie year, 18 years earlier, Gil Hodges was the Mets’ manager and was impatient with Ryan. Although Ryan could consistently throw over ninety miles an hour, he could not consistently throw over the plate. He was walking everybody and hitting a lot of people. Hodges told Ryan as one game began that he had to pitch better or he would pull him out and trade him. He would be finished.
Ryan went into that game determined that he was going to succeed. He was miserable. He walked seven or eight batters in four innings. Hodges took him out. Later that season he was traded to the Angels.
After the game, Richard Reeves went into the locker room to interview players. He noticed Nolan Ryan apart from the others, looking into a mirror, having difficulty tying his tie. Reeves saw tears in his eyes. Ryan was crying. He could not see to tie his tie because of the tears.
Reeves remembered that incident years later when Nolan Ryan was being celebrated as one of the immortals of baseball. He remembered that this legendary man, Nolan Ryan, began his long string of success thinking he had failed. But he kept working. He kept practicing. He kept doing his job.
In like manner, a Christian’s life will have failures and disappointments. Many Christians have thrown up their hands and have quit the Christian race—thinking they had failed.
Friends, we must be persistent. “My beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
When failure and disappointment come, remember the words of Jesus’ brother: “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the test- ing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2–4).
Don’t give up—don’t ever give up. Re- member, Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
Tom Moore