A theology professor of mine in seminary once told me many Christians tend to view reality as a game of bowling: God is “behind” what is going on much like a bowler is the force behind a bowling ball.  In this perception, God is a bowler in charge of the reality of life: God “throws” the ball (which is life) and directs its course down the lane (i.e., reality) to the pins (i.e., destiny) according to how God chooses.  Here, the focus lies with the force behind the ball, and thus, what comes before the throw.  What has happened before the throw determines what happens at any given point along the trajectory of the bowling ball.  In other words, the emphasis is on the past.

    A competing view sees reality more as a baseball game.  Rather than being the motive force pushing life from behind, God is more of a receiver than a thrower.  In this model, the ball (i.e., life) is hurtling toward God who waits in the future to catch it.  In other words, God is drawing life into the future as opposed to pushing it from the past.  God is the force in front of the ball.  The emphasis remains on the future, or what has yet to transpire.  Here, God is in the outfield, fielding any number of hits. There is more freedom for variety of what can possibly happen, which takes into account free will.  But the idea is that, no matter where the ball may be hit, God will be there to catch it.

    I find this notion much more compelling and hopeful.  It means there is more room for human involvement and less room for pre-destination.  It practical terms, it means that, despite what has happened in the past—be it a bad or good, be it a grounder or high fly—God will be pulling reality toward the promise, the destiny of new life.  That is, God will be there to catch the ball, no matter how or from what direction it comes.  The God we worship in the Bible encourages us not to dwell in the past or we may get stuck there because God is out there ahead of us, beckoning us on to ever newer and fuller life.  Whether our past is full of pain, blessing, or more likely a combination of both, surely we are not to forget or discount it, but to move on toward the new blessings God is providing and not let the past hang us back from the new life of God’s future.  It would be like having such a good game we refuse to play again because we don’t want to spoil the memory.  It would be like Good Friday holding us back from Easter.

 

 

Thus says the Lord,
   who makes a way in the sea,
   a path in the mighty waters,

who brings out chariot and horse,
   army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
   they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:

Do not remember the former things,
   or consider the things of old.

I am about to do a new thing;
   now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
   and rivers in the desert.

The wild animals will honour me,
   the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
   rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,

the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.

 

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
   we were like those who dream.

Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
   and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
   ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’

The Lord has done great things for us,
   and we rejoiced.

Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
   like the watercourses in the Negeb.

May those who sow in tears
   reap with shouts of joy.

Those who go out weeping,
   bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
   carrying their sheaves.

 

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,

if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.