On Sunday night, I, along with thousands of other baseball fans, watched as the Chicago Cubs new catching prospect, Willson Contreras, hit a homerun on the first pitch he’s ever seen in the big leagues. It was a jaw-dropping moment. Contreras is only the eighth Cubs player in history to homer in his first major league baseball at bat. As one commentator said, “The kid just changed his life with one swing.”
Or did he?
While it’s true that Contreras’ life changed with one crack of the bat, his history making homerun was years in the making. Long before that magical moment under the big lights at Wrigley, he endured countless days of little league, junior high and high school baseball, travel dates, personal doubt, embarrassing errors, wins, losses, rain delays, pulled muscles, bruised shins, lazy teammates, games played with the flu, criticism, good and bad coaches, the stress of a draft, Triple-A baseball, and finally a chance to be called up to the big leagues.
You’ll never meet a world-class achiever who is an overnight success.
Why?
They don’t exist. It takes years of preparation to perform at that level.
In the same way, God often takes years to grow us into the people He intends for us to become.
Let’s take Joseph for example. You might remember that Joseph was the favored son of Jacob (Gen 37:3). Joseph wore a multi-colored robe given to him by his father that symbolized the fact he was the favored son. His brothers hated him for it. Actually, they despised him so much they sold Joseph as a slave and he was taken to Egypt. But God had big plans for Joseph.
While in Egypt, Joseph was sold to a man named Potiphar. God gave Joseph favor in Potiphar’s house and he was promoted as the head of his household. Joseph had an excellent attitude and work ethic. Things were finally looking up. Sadly, it didn’t last long. Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph of rape, and he was thrown in prison for a sex crime he didn’t commit (Gen 39).
Despite the setback, Joseph kept putting one foot in front of the other. While he was in prison he correctly interpreted two dreams for men who worked for Pharaoh. Joseph asked one of the men to remember him, and put in a good word for him with the king, so he could be released from prison.(Gen 39-40). But the man forgot him, and Joseph sat in prison for two more years. Still, God had big plans for Joseph.
As time in prison passed by at a snails pace, Joseph must’ve been discouraged. Surely, he didn’t believe he was making any progress. Joseph was just doing the best he could in the tasks he’d been assigned. But day in and day out, as Joseph waited, God was working on Joseph’s character and preparing him for something big.
Thirteen years had passed since his brothers had sold Joseph. The day of of his breakthrough probably began as any other day. Joseph had no way of knowing that Pharaoh had suffered from a dream the night before. In a series of God orchestrated events, Pharaoh shared the dream with his staff, and his cupbearer remembered how Joseph had correctly interpreted his dream two years before. And finally, the text says, “Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit (Gen 41:14).
Quickly?
I bet Joseph didn’t think it happened quickly. He’d been waiting thirteen years. But finally, he got his chance with Pharaoh. He correctly interpreted Pharaohs dreams, and Pharaoh promoted Joseph over all of Egypt. It turns out that God had been preparing Joseph to serve in a leadership role that would lead Egypt through a perilous time of famine. Millions of people would be saved by it. After thirteen years of God ordained preparation, Joseph was ready for the task.
Most of us want to step into our God given callings overnight. We long for our moment at the plate when we knock it out of the park. But we grow in the trenches. During our day- to-day parenting, commuting, cooking, house cleaning, working, car-pooling kind of lives, we grow into the people God intends for us to be. It’s in those mundane moments that God transforms and matures us.
Willson Contreras made baseball history, but he’s still a rookie. In fact, immediately following his curtain call he was summonsed back to the bullpen to warm up pitchers.
In an ESPN interview following the game, Contreras said, “It was funny. After I hit a homer, they said, ‘I know you are happy, but you have to go back to the bullpen.”
It turns out the bullpen is a great place to be.
