I’ve had a rough few weeks as of late. I was telling a friend the other day that it seems someone has been throwing a lot of curve balls my way and I have the bruises to prove it. I went on to tell him that I haven’t worked out my timing yet; he seemed perplexed.

If you watch much baseball, you’ll hear the commentators talk about a certain player’s ability to hit a curve ball. It seems almost impossible that anyone could hit a 95 mile-per-hour fastball, but even average hitters will finally work out the timing and learn to hit them. But to be successful in the major leagues, a hitter must learn to hit curve balls. How do they do that? They have to learn from experience, stay focused on the ball, and have confidence in their ability to hit the ball.

Many times, life will throw us curve balls. Just when we think we’ve got it all figured out, we will encounter a situation that doesn’t hit us “straight on.” It will come to us from a different angle and, if we’re not prepared for it, we’ll strike out. Just as batters have to learn to “see” the ball, we have to be prepared to anticipate various challenges. How do we prepare? We have to learn from experience, stay focused on our purpose, and have confidence in our ability “hit the ball.”