LET ME STAY, I CAN DO IT!
When my #1 grandson, Adam was beginning in Little League, the procedure was to try each player in all positions. This particular afternoon, Adam was one of the pitchers. Of course as grandparents we thought he was the best. The game was in the bottom of the sixth, which is all the innings they play. Bases were loaded.! I can’t remember the score but they were ahead and if the other team could score it would be all over. Adam wanted to see it through!

His coach, who mothered all the players, came out of the dugout and offered to relieve him. Adam shook his head no! She put her arm around him and tried to encourage him with; "you’ve done a great job. We can put someone else in who is fresh. This is to stressful for you". Adam shook his head no! After much shuffling of dirt and pleading on both sides, Adam says; "Let me stay! Let me stay! I can do it"! The coach returned to her dugout and Adam promptly threw three strikes! Three up and three down. He won the game! What a button popping game!

Many times we find ourselves under stress when we are trying to achieve success. For many, working under stress makes it better! For many, working under stress causes disasters and the beginning of many failures because we think we just can’t do anything. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail. Success doesn’t mean that we will always succeed. Failure doesn’t mean that we will always fail. What it means in both cases, is that we tried.

My mother and father had 14 children together and yet because he was an alcoholic and couldn’t hold a job, he felt he was a failure. One Monday morning in November of 1954, Daddy was on his way to a rehabilitation facility but wanted to see the pastor first. When the pastor knew he was coming he refilled the baptistry as it had been emptied the night before. I wasn’t there but knowing our pastor he was not going to leave the bases loaded without a home run. When Dad told the pastor that he always felt he was a failure, the pastor was astonished. He exclaimed; "You are not a failure! You have 14 children and all of them know the Lord! You are not a failure!" That morning my father was baptized! Because he turned his life over to the Lord he felt he could lick his addiction and decided he was going home and not to Rahab. Is that just a home run, or is that a home run with bases loaded!

The next day, Daddy went to the Café that Lonnie had bought several years before. In the afternoon he suffered a stroke and died. He had sclerosis of the liver! Too many years of drinking. Too many years of not taking care of himself. I find God’s timing amazing, don’t you? Daddy was on his way to rehab, stopped long enough to repent and come to the Lord. The Lord, having already known my Dad for 53 yrs, knew that he couldn’t do it on his own. God knew his body had already had enough. God knew that Satan would put forth his last ditch effort to get Daddy back where he was.

"Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it"; 1 Corinthians 10:12-14. I believe that God made a way for Daddy to escape the evitable temptation that was before him. He took him home as a brand new baby in His son Jesus Christ. It is only in God’s love and protection that we even know that an escape route exists. God has made all the provisions to give success to those who love Him. When we say we can’t, we know that God can! When we say I can do it, we know that through Christ we can do all things. When we put our trust in the one that says "Trust Me!" We know, we have won the game and we are home! By Jane Ann Crenshaw 2/5/08