Can I ask you an honest, but direct question?

Has your life, or more succinctly the vision you had for your life, remotely played out like you thought it would?

If your answer is “yes” to the question posed, you are to be commended.

Your life must be full of green grass, a tree-lined walkway, and castles awaiting your arrival as you stroll without a care toward your destination.

You are fortunate to have all of your “I’s” dotted and your “T’s” crossed.

You are living a life where seemingly everything is in its place.

Let me be the first to say “well done”.

Let me also say you are in the minority as many of us don’t share the same outcome your tale has to offer.

It’s not that life as you experience is bad, it simply is not the norm.

For many of us, the road at best has the hint of a storm coming over the horizon – most of the time.

For others, the path is littered with the heartache of all sort of human drama. I could begin to delineate but I will spare you the gory details.

At one point in my life I was in search of a mile long driveway, aptly afforded by the major baseball contract to which I aspired.

Those were the days when said contract might have delivered hundreds of thousands versus the millions pro ball players secure today.

Still, I think the mile long driveway would have been well within reach at yesterday’s prices!

Here I go again marking the timeline, but baseball was my life in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

I played organized baseball for eight summers as I made my way through Little League, Pony League, and Colt League.

In the team photo below, I am the third one from the left in the back row – check out the hair!  What else could you expect from the boys of summer?

I played pick-up games all summer long with my friends when I wasn’t playing games in the aforementioned leagues.

If you ask any of my siblings or others who knew me then, I was better than average and a shade under exceptional.

The dream had a reasonable chance of becoming real.

I had not only had a love for the game (I still do!), but also had a knack for it as well.

I could hit, field, throw, and run and did each well.

I studied the game and knew the ins and outs of baseball strategy.

When I was not playing a pick-up or real game, I was playing an imaginary one in my head as I bounced a rubber baseball off a cement wall for hours to hone my catching skills.

It was always the Pittsburgh Pirates versus the opposition (normally the hated Phillies), with my team always winning.

The heroes of my day with names like Stargell, Alou, Mazeroski, Clemente, and Blass would always come through for me in my make believe world.

Clemente topped the list for sure!

In my “real” games, I had a standing bet with my next door neighbor, Herb, who normally attended my games.

A home run always meant a milkshake was coming my way. I collected from him on more than one occasion.

I used to tell Herb, “When I get older and you come visit me, you will have to drive up my mile long driveway to get to my house”.

I could almost hear him chuckling now.

By now you may have guessed I don’t have, nor ever did have, the mile long driveway which was the end-all of my big league, money-making aspirations.

Don’t get me wrong.

My life has been good – I am blessed with a loving and beautiful wife.

We have been equally blessed to have had and raise three daughters.

We now get to enjoy them and their husbands as well as the little tribe members I affectionately call my grandchildren.

However, the road has been strewn with much debris along the journey.

It has consisted of my own “human drama” primarily centered on the topic of “what do I want to be when I grow up .”

Some poor decisions early on led to taking work which paid the bills but left me disenchanted.

A few curve balls were thrown my way, which in my baseballs days I would have handled skillfully, to which I had no answer – job loss, job misplacement as in a “square peg in a round hole”, and dissatisfaction all became part of my landscape.

I recall on many occasions uttering the words, “I hate my job!”

Money tensions parked near the door, marital tensions ensued, and I was left holding the bat instead of swinging it as I once did with authority.

The recent time period of unemployment was actually a blessing which came my way.

In many ways, the road I envisioned traveling never quite measured up to the road I have and am traveling.

Personally, it is healing to me to write these words.

More importantly, my prayer for you is the same.

I don’t know what roads you have traveled.

I cannot say I have walked the path you have traveled nor can I say I completely understand.

Your road may look like a garbage truck crashed on it, leaving behind the stench of yesterday without the promise of a better smelling tomorrow.

I will say you are not alone and I can relate.

My less than perfect path has made me who I am today.

It has strengthened me.

It has shaped me.

It has helped me be sensitive and to “walk a mile in another’s moccasins”.

It has helped me learn the value of overcoming.

It has, many times, brought me to my knees and closer to my God.

There is a popular song by Kelly Clarkson with the following line:

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, stand a little taller.”

Can I offer you this encouragement as you ponder the mile long driveway which may have, to date, escaped your grasp?

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment.” (Romans 5: 3-5 NLT)

The debris along the road you have traveled is very real.

Many times it has hurt and is very painful.

Equally as real is the fact you are loved, your life has a purpose, and the end of the game has not yet happened.

It may be the bottom of the ninth, with two outs, and two strikes being your pitch count.

Pick up the bat, look the pitcher in the eye, and swing for the fences.

You never know when you might knock one out of the park!

What disappointments in life have led you to a greater sense of purpose in the long run?

Photos Courtesy of Brittany Castillejo, Jessica Lamos, and Bruce R. Cross