I’m going to digress a bit from my normal blogs about coaching and share a true life experience that I hear of over the weekend. It’s about little league baseball, so bear with me on this. One of the companies that my consulting firm is working with is called Christian Values Network (www.cvn.org) – it’s an affinity marketing portal that provides funds to churches and Christian non-profits. CVN just signed Mike Huckabee as a spokesperson and I had the privilege and the honor of spending some time with Governor Huckabee over this past weekend.
I was also able to hear him speak several times in various venues: from a small country church to a convocation with over 10,000 college students attending. His messages were all different and relevant to each of his audiences. In the sermon at the rural church, the former Baptist pastor preached a lesson on Roman’s 8:25 – “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. “ One of the illustrations that he used was regarding his little league baseball playing days – finally Rod, a connection to baseball – thanks for hanging with me. Mike was playing catcher and did not follow the cardinal rule of catching; i.e., keeping his ungloved hand behind the glove and a foul tip broke his finger. He was eleven and his baseball playing days were over for that summer. Here’s where the “all things work together for good” part comes in. After his injury his coach asked if he would be interested in going into the press box to announce the players as they came to bat. He did and he was quite good at it.
This all took place in Hope, Arkansas – the town was so small that the local radio station actually broadcast the little league games each Saturday. One of the announcers of KXAR 149 heard Mike announcing the players and was impressed with his voice and skills and invited him to come to the station when he was old enough to get his FCC license. He started to hang around the station when he was 13 and at 14 he got his license. He started working at the station - a broken finger was what launched Mike Huckabee’s career in broadcasting – he now has 3 ABC radio shows and a weekly show on Fox News, “Huckabee” 8PM Eastern on Saturday and Sunday nights. You never know what God might have in store for you when it comes to misfortunes……
All things work for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.
