Read
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you fail to meet the test! I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.
2 Corinthians 13:5-6
Reflect
My all-time favorite baseball player is Mike Schmidt, the former third baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies. During his career, Mike became famous for being a slugger and knocking 548 home runs, which at the time was the seventh most in major league history. He led the league in home runs eight times and had the most runs batted in four times. He was also the National League’s Most Valuable Player three times.
But another interesting statistic is that Mike was great at drawing walks and was also prone to striking out. He led the league four times in strikeouts and another four times in walks. During his career, he struck out 1,883 times and was walked another 1,507 times. Put those together, and that is 3,390 trips to the plate that ended without the kind of swing people remember. Based on his average number of plate appearances per season, that adds up to roughly six seasons’ worth of trips to the plate that ended in a strikeout or a walk.
Do you ever feel like it’s been years since you’ve “hit the ball”?
You might have a long list of what feel like strikeouts and walks in your life, but that doesn’t mean you have failed. A player like Mike Schmidt, who swung and missed so often, is still considered a success and is even in the Baseball Hall of Fame. His strikeouts were real, but they were not the whole story.
Paul tells us to examine ourselves and test ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. That is a serious command, and we should not ignore it. But self-examination does not mean obsessing over every setback and deciding that every failure is proof that we have failed the test. The real question is not whether we have ever struck out. The real question is whether Christ is in us.
Remember that you have God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – present with you throughout your “strikeouts” and “walks,” and He will also be present when you, in faith, break through with your hits. Our success in faith isn’t hindered by our setbacks. In fact, sometimes those setbacks become part of the process by which the Lord teaches us, strengthens us and draws us closer to Himself.
Today, examine yourself honestly, but do not confuse setbacks with failure. A strikeout is not proof that Christ is absent from your life. A walk is not proof that nothing is happening. The real question is whether you are still standing in faith, still trusting the Lord and still stepping to the plate because Christ is in you.
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Reflection copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt and Charles Fulton.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
