The Fifth Tuesday in Lent

“You know we just don’t recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they’re happening. Back then I thought, well, there’ll be other days. I didn’t realize that that was the only day. ” – Field of Dreams

Yesterday was Opening Day of course so we were do for a line from a baseball movie. This one is from Archibald Graham who, if you remember the movie, never got to bat in the major leagues. In the movie, he gets his second chance, but chooses, once again, to be a doctor instead.

I often reflect on missed opportunities. If I had only taken that job in Virginia, If I had only invested in Yahoo, if I had only kept playing baseball. What if? But the more I reflect on them, and the older I get, the more I have come to believe that I am walking a path set by God. The hardest part is knowing if I am still on his path.

And if I fall off of his path, if I fail to grasp an opportunity or I make a mistake along the way. Where does that leave me? Faith in God is also Faith in second chances. Whether I fall from his path through sin or I just miss his message to me, I am confident that his eternal love for me will lead me back to his road.

Like Archie Graham, I lament that I have failed to understand the significance of moments. But I understand that I am following God’s path and he may have something else in mind for me.

“Fifty years ago, for five minutes you came within… y-you came this close. It would KILL some men to get so close to their dream and not touch it. God, they’d consider it a tragedy.”

“Son, if I’d only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes… Now that would have been a tragedy.”

Walter

About the author

Webb Hubbell is the former Associate Attorney General of The United States. His novels, When Men Betray, Ginger Snaps, A Game of Inches, The Eighteenth Green, and The East End are published by Beaufort Books and are available online or at your local bookstore. When Men Betray won one of the IndieFab awards for best novel in 2014. Ginger Snaps and The Eighteenth Green won the IPPY Awards Gold Medal for best suspense/thriller. His latest, “Light of Day” will be on the bookstands soon.

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