Be Where Your Feet Are
Runner on first, one out and I’m on defense playing shortstop. Ground ball gets hit to me, boots off the heal of my glove and bounces into center field. The runner on first gets to third. Instead of an inning-ending double play we now have runners on first and third with only one out. It’s easy to play the what-if game here, but we’re still in the middle of the inning. Now is when it’s especially important to practice the principle of being where your feet are.
There are many important lessons I learned from baseball that have direct applications to everyday life. 17 years of playing has probably made me biased, but it’s why I think it’s the greatest game of all time. Back to the principle.
What does it mean to be where your feet are? It’s quite self-explanatory – you can’t be anywhere else other than where you actually are. In the above example: could we have been out of the inning if I would have made the play and turned two – yea. Should we be – maybe. But here’s the reality – we aren’t. So, now what?
I can play the could have’s, should have’s, and what if’s all day, but it’s the bottom of the seventh, we’re up by one run and I’m still playing shortstop and there are runners on first and third with one out. I need to be prepared for what’s happening now so as to put myself in a position to be successful.
If only I would have made that move. If would have said yes instead of no. Why didn’t I speak up earlier? If I wouldn’t have gone to that party. Again, we can play this game our entire lives – live with regret and fear of the future – but at the end of the day you are where you are. Period. It’s the moment in front of you that you get to choose what to do with.
Jesus said in the middle of His Sermon on the Mount, “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matthew 6:34). Jesus tells us to focus on today and not to get caught up in all that may or may not’s to come in the future.
James in his short letter says this, “Look here, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?... What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15).
It’s easy for me to get caught up in thinking things like, maybe if I move to this place I’ll finally get that thing I’ve been looking for. But then the thought turns to, what if the thing I’m looking for is here and I miss it if I move? Looking at the words of Jesus and James, it seems clear that we are to live today to the best of our abilities and when we do look forward and plan, we do so in partnership with the Lord, trusting that He is the One who is in control.
I get it, how do we boil this down to an actionable? Practice being present. You are where you are. For some, that means giving yourself permission to be where you are. Maybe you have regrets in your past, living in the past won’t solve those problems. Maybe you’re fearful about the uncertainty of the future, worrying isn’t going to make those concerns go away it will only exacerbate them. Being present and focusing on things like: I’m going to be kind to the checkout person at the store right now, or I’m on a call with someone who tends to rub me the wrong way I’m going to practice being patient right now.
Friend, we’re not promised anything in this life. We don’t know what tomorrow may bring or if the sun will rise, the only thing we have for certain is right now. So, I want to ask you, where are you? Regardless of the pains in your past or the fears in your future, God promises to give us today our daily bread and that His grace is sufficient for us. We can’t change the past and we don’t have control over the future, but let’s practice together – being where our feet are.
