Batter up!

If there was one thing that Cal loved, it was baseball. After school, he would call his friends and convince them to meet him at a park to play. Even if there weren't enough kids, it didn't matter. At least he'd be playing.

Cal dreamed about playing for his high school team. When he was a freshman, he practiced in the fall – and even in the winter – in order to get ready to try out for the junior varsity team.

The day of tryouts came. Everyone warmed up, and the first thing Cal did was field ground balls at shortstop and throw them to the first baseman. It was fun and felt good. The coach told everyone that the names of the people who'd made the team would be posted on a list in the locker room the next day.

The next morning, Cal got off the bus and walked quickly to the locker room. Before he was even close to the board, he saw his name on the list. What a happy moment!

During the next three weeks, the team worked hard. The coach was nice, and he had a lot to teach each player. One Friday after practice, everyone met in the locker room to get their uniforms. Their first game was coming up on Tuesday.

That night, one of Cal's former Little League coaches called him and asked if he would help coach some of the younger kids. Cal was happy to do it. During one of the demonstrations where he was showing how to catch and throw quickly, though, he badly injured one of his fingers on his throwing arm. Cal had always prayed about injuries, so he began praying right away. All day Sunday he prayed, and Monday, too.

When he arrived at practice, he saw his coach in the locker room. He looked at Cal's hand and told him that, because they played only 16 games, he didn't think he would be too useful this season because of the injury. He asked Cal to turn in his uniform for a player who earlier had not made the team. Cal felt sad. The next day it was hard to watch the team bus drive off to its first game.

"Why did this happen to me?" he kept asking himself. "I was only trying to help those kids." The next couple of weeks were rough. His finger had healed quickly, but Cal didn't tell the coach. He didn't want the kid who'd gotten his uniform to have to give it up.

He'll never forget what happened next. He was still feeling sad and decided to walk over to the park. As he was leaving the house, he picked up a little pamphlet that he'd gotten at Sunday School and put it in his back pocket.

When he got to the park, he sat down on a bench and read it. It described someone in the Bible – his name was Joseph – and, even though Joseph always tried to do good and to help people, bad things kept happening to him. He was made a slave and even spent time in prison. But, in the end, all of the bad things and events actually placed him where he could help more people than he'd ever imagined. He saved most of the population of Egypt from the effects of a long drought.

As unjust as things seemed, actually God was taking care of Joseph the whole time. His life proved the truth of these words: "All things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. 8:28). All of a sudden Cal realized that this was true for him, too. When Cal was helping those kids, he was loving God and expressing His qualities such as agility and accuracy and unselfishness. In the long run, only good could come of that. Cal now knew that under God's law somehow it all would "work together for good."

In talking about God, Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "He has mercy upon us, and guides every event of our careers. He is near to them who adore Him" ("Unity of Good," pp. 3-4).

Two days later, Cal saw something in the newspaper about a tryout for a team of high school and college players. He tried out and made it! It wasn't long before Cal was the starting shortstop. Best of all, his team played more than 60 games that season!