Curve Balls

AJ makes contact back in the day!

 On our recent get-away, Christine and I not only took in the basketball game at Cameron but also passed by the much less frequented baseball stadium next door, where I spent more of my waking hours at Duke than anywhere else - yes, even more than the library, I'm guessing. Standing there, looking out on home plate, I was reminded of an email my Uncle Peter sent me on hearing of my cancer.
"I hear God's thrown you a curve ball," he wrote. As a baseball hitter, the pitch you generally 'sit on' is a fast ball in the heart of the strike zone. In fact, in college we were instructed to look only for the fast ball and let off-speed pitches go by until we had two strikes. The fact is good curve balls were hard to hit. The key to hitting them with any authority was waiting on them, keeping one's weight and hands back, much easier said than done with pitchers mixing them in between 90 MPH fast balls.
Like a curve ball, the battle with lymphoma has a long arc, and definitely calls for patience. I find myself wanting to fast forward through the treatment and be done with it. Yet God's timing is perfect, I keep reminding myself, and moreover He throws every pitch - fastball or off-speed - for a reason. Not sure where all this is heading but keeping the faith, and definitely learning to wait on a whole new level!

Jack Coombs Field today (Duke University)