Podcast: Play in new window | Download
“On August 6th 1999, a major league baseball player stepped up to home plate made another out. The 5,113th of his professional career. You know that’s a lot of trips to the batter’s box without a hit. Do you think he had failed himself or his team? No. You see, earlier in that same game, that player had reached a milestone that only 21 other people at that time in the history of baseball, had ever achieved. He made is 3,000th hit. That player was Tony Guinn of the San Diego Padres, and if you know baseball, you recognize that Tony’s ability to get a hit only one time for every three attempts made him the greatest hitter of his generation.
I’m Mark Evans, pastor of the Church at Rock Creek. You know in life to get hits, you got to make a lot of outs. Now take a second to think about that. I didn’t say a few outs or an occasional out, i said a lot of outs. More outs, in fact, than hits. And successful people know that life is just like that They swing and they miss again and again. They don’t swing once, miss and then quit. They keep trying, making changes necessary to finally get a hit.
You know, too many of us fall victim to the quick fix mentality that’s so prevalent in our world. We want instant success with little or no effort required on our part. We want to win the lottery, you know. We want to fix our money problems fast. It’s only the true champions in life, who realize that success means lots of trips to the batter’s box to face the prospect of another out. It’s just like lots of sales people know that you have to get a lot of no’s to finally get a yes. So don’t be discouraged by the outs, see them for what they are. The signs posted on the road to success.”
