It was the perfect pitch on the perfect fall day. A 10-year-old boy couldn't have managed a better pitch - straight over the plate, and waist high. Dad swung the bat and it was out of there! WOW!

I got a call from the emergency room shortly after 1 p.m. My son was there crying for Mom with lips swollen three times their nomal size. I guess when a perfect pitch meets up with a perfect bat, it doesn't always add up to good results.

With wry humor I looked at my son gingerly balancing a bloody ice pack on his distorted mouth and said, "Kiddo, sometimes life is just like that. We give it our best shot and it turns around and smacks us in the face."

Ever been there? I have too many times to count. David was there too.

Psalm 73:13-14
13. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
14. For all the day long I been plagued, and chastened every morning.

To be honest, it sounds like David might have had a "fat lip" of his own. He had been looking around at the unfairness of life. Evil doers were seemingly blessed while he who had dedicated his life to living for God was in a rough spot.

I think we all get there at some point in life. But the fact of the matter is that it rains on the just and the unjust. And no, life isn't always fair. But if we read a little further we find David in the sanctuary. In that place he manages to refocus on the important things and we find him saying, "It is good for me to draw near to God."

So the next time you're giving it your best shot and out of the nowhere you see stars, your body goes numb, and you drop to your knees from the impact of a perfect pitch gone wrong, find your way to the Sanctuary of God. It's the best place to refocus.

And by the way.... "fat lips" don't last forever. You'd never guess that just five days ago my son strongly resembled a duck-billed platypus!