Game Changer

Standing at the home plate I knew that no matter how hard I swung the bat I would still fail. I failed before I got up from the bench. I thought of all the times before that I had played the game, no matter the amount of my determination, I always failed. Sometimes it seemed like I could do it, but one way or another before I would reach home, before I would taste the victory somehow the other team would get me out of the game.

When all seemed lost, a new player showed up. Something about him was different. But still the only thing that was on the mind of all our players was that the other team would still win. There was no way that this person could possibly be any different from the rest of us. That he could make any change.

We all knew what was different when he told us all that he was going to bat for every one of us. He was going to step up to the plate and face the defeat that had held us down every game. For some reason he was very confident, almost as if knew that he was going to gain the victory, but the stranger part was that he told us that when he hit the ball he wanted us to run for him. We all thought even if he could hit the ball, why wouldn’t he take all the victory and the glory for himself? Why would he share that with us?

He stepped up to the plate and stared into the face of defeat that we all knew so well. If he hit it, I was determined to run as hard and as fast as I could to reach the home plate. But how could he? What was he going to do that was different from the rest of us? The whole team stood and we held our breath as we watched the pitcher get ready to throw. We knew that this was going to be the fastest throw that any of us had ever seen. There was no way that this guy could hit the ball. My heart pounded as I watched the pitcher let the ball fly from his hand directed toward the home plate. Everything was in slow motion. The ball was in the air and came a foot away from the home plate, my heart stopped when all of sudden I was snapped out of my day dream by a clear and resounding smack. That ball flew higher and farther than I had ever seen in my entire life, I didn’t think that it would ever come back. I was so amazed that I couldn’t move, all I could do is watch it fly so high I could barely see it. Then I realized I needed to run. As fast as I possibly could to reach that home base.

It didn’t matter what the other team could even possibly think of doing now, because I was home free, they couldn’t get me out of this game now. All failure was gone and all I could see now was victory. And it was all because this person, that I barely knew took the place for me, and won me the victory. All I could remember as I ran was what he said to us before he stepped up to the plate, “It is enough for me to share in the victory that I give to you.” And with those words, he changed the game forever.