It was a new way of living for Sarah Harper. Offering to help people. Encouraging them and offering what she knew could assist them or make them feel better about things. She noticed that finding opportunities to give joy away was the main thing that released joy into her own life. It still amazed her… this principle of sowing and reaping that she had discovered in the Bible. It absolutely worked. When she had sown misery into the lives of others, she was miserable herself. Now that she was sowing joy, she was joyful.
Joe and Mitchell wanted to ride the “L” train to the game. So they wouldn’t have to worry about parking, Joe urged. So they loaded the car with the foldable stroller and other baby paraphernalia, drove the new hybrid to the Park & Ride lot, and boarded the Purple Line at Linden, headed south.
By the time they made the connection to the Red Line at Howard, the train was standing room only. Everyone wore red and pinstripe blue. They were all in this together. Fraternity brothers heading in from Loyola struck up baseball chatter with families from Wilmette and businessmen from Bryn Mawr. “Think Zambrano can pitch another no-hitter?” “Think Aramis Ramirez can tag another pinch runner?” “Think Cedeno’s batting average stands a chance?”
The elevated train ground to a stop with a shrill screech of brakes, propelling everyone forward. Sarah and Joe, Mitchell and Kate spilled out the sliding doors with the crowd. In the distance they could see the familiar red marquee. WRIGLEY FIELD. HOME OF CHICAGO CUBS.
Hot-dog stands and pizza parlors did a brisk business. Hawkers held up unofficial programs for an exorbitant price. On the corner of Waveland, an elderly lady sold necklaces she’d strung by hand, made of red and blue beads. Directly beside the entrance, a harried clerk sold Cubs jerseys, pencils, pennants, and bobblehead dolls.
Mitchell led the way with his foam claw while Joe pushed the stroller. Sarah followed with one finger crooked through the belt loop of Joe’s jeans. When they wove their way through the throngs and stepped through the tunnel and came out beneath the banks of spotlights, Joe heard Sarah’s breath catch.
“Dad,” Mitchell whispered, “there it is.”
“I know, son.” Joe rumpled his son’s hair. He slid his arm around Sarah’s shoulders and pulled his wife tightly against him.
There were the endless stretch of emerald grass and the rumpled curtains of ivy and the red brick wall. Joe said, “There are plenty of nice houses here in Chicago, but nothing that makes so many people feel at home as Wrigley.”
Sarah laid her head against his shoulder. She wiped her eyes behind her sunglasses. He knew she was starting to cry.
On the opposite side of the field, the scoreboard gleamed. Its gigantic clock, which read 6:55, smiled down at them like an old friend. The team-standings pennants, strung in order along a sturdy rope, clanged and snapped against the flagpole. The name of each team playing tonight had already been set in slots facing the field. Soon the scoreboard would be posting the triple-crown stats of each batter. For now, each game—including this one—sported a long string of empty panels. A few tiny squares stood open, through which you could see the movement of someone sorting numbers, getting panels ready to set in place after a big play. But no matter that the regular scoreboard manager had been doing this job for years now, no matter that he’d been trained by another guy who’d worked forty years before him.
It wasn’t so long ago that Wingtip waited with an elbow draped over the sill, his head inclined toward their seats in the bleachers. Mitchell couldn’t take his eyes from the scoreboard, thinking of his friend with a starched white shirt, eyes as sparkly as stars, brows as tufted as nettle bunches.
Joe happened to glance in the same direction. He sensed his son’s melancholy. “You know that you may not see him anymore, don’t you, son?”
Mitchell didn’t know how he knew, but deep down in his heart he knew his father was right.
“He can still see you, and the Father might even have him help you at another time in life, but he’s finished his job with this family for now. He’s probably helping someone else that he met here at Wrigley Field. There are lots of needy people in the world who could use some help from heaven.”
Mitchell leaned against Joe’s broad arm. “Dad, do you think Wingtip is still in the scoreboard just like before, only now we just can’t see him?” Joe thought carefully before answering, but he finally said, “You know son, I’m not sure, but one thing I am sure of is that our Father in heaven is everywhere and he is with us, watching us and taking care of us all the time.”
Rounds of cheers went up from the sections above them as the Cubbies took the field. A catcher donned a helmet, stooped behind home plate, and made a target of his glove to help the pitcher warm up. A father hugged his son against his chest. A mother settled her baby daughter in her lap. A husband draped his arm across his wife’s shoulders, drew her close while her heart repeated the new lessons she’d learned from her Heavenly Father.
Any minute you might get the chance to make someone else happy. Any minute you might get your chance to be a giver. So be watchful at all times and don’t let any opportunity to do good pass you by.
“Ball’s in!” the ump shouted.
The pitcher stood just this side of the mound. He stepped onto the rise and stared straight down the pike toward his catcher. He touched the brim of his cap and spit in the dirt and started his windup.
On the scoreboard, the clock’s hand ticked another notch forward; another minute had just gone by. There came the lovely crack of bat against ball. As the baseball sailed far against the night, Sarah laid her hand on Joe’s knee. He covered her hand with his own, their wedding bands almost touching. Neither of them, ever again, would think of letting go.
Discussion Questions
by Tinsley Spessard
1. Sarah lived at a frantic pace, one that is common and often admired in our culture. Why do you think that hyperscheduled, multitasking lifestyle is revered in America? Why was Sarah driven to stay so busy? Compare that striving mentality with “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). Why is it so hard for us to “be still”?
2. “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). In what ways did Mitchell’s innocent faith help him see more clearly than the adults around him? Can you think of gifts God has given you that you might have missed if you had been too busy with your adult-sized worries?
3. Sarah wondered, “Wasn’t that what being alive was all about, about being happy?” (p. 70), and during a fight with Joe, she asked, “What about me being happy?” (p. 108). Is happiness a right—something we deserve? Do you think God promises us happiness? Why or why not?
4. Joe said to Sarah, “If I depended on how you treat me to determine my value, Sarah, I wouldn’t think very highly of myself” (p. 108). What should determine your value? If you believed your worth comes from God alone and lived from a secure belief in how much he loves you, how would that affect your relationships? Would it change what you feel you need from other people?
5. In the story, the characters continually let each other down: Sarah was disappointed by her mother, Joe was disappointed by Sarah, and Mitchell’s hopes were dashed by one adult after another. Describe how each one tried to earn the love and attention he or she craved. Did it ever work? Is this what we do with God—try to earn a love he has already given? Explain your answer.
6. After a fight, can the next day ever be “any other day”? Reconciliation or bitterness hangs in the balance. Describe the power “I’m sorry” and “I forgive you” can have. Sarah wanted to put the blame on Joe. Does there always have to be blame in a disagreement? When you feel accused, when is it the right time to let it go? When should you stand up for yourself? Discuss times when Jesus acted assertively and times he chose to remain passive.
7. While rescuers searched for Sarah, Joe thought, “What does a person do at a time like this… when you really don’t know how to pray?” (p. 146). Do you think praye
r is something you have to get right? Are you comfortable praying? Describe ways people can pray without even thinking.
8. During that same moment at the river, Joe thought “he should have let the chaplain stay. That would have been better than phoning the pastor at the church they’d attended a few times. It would have been easier and better and guilt free. How did you say, ‘You don’t know me, but I need you’?” (p. 146). Why would calling his pastor make him feel guilty? Is that how people sometimes feel with God? Why?
9. Eugene Peterson paraphrases Matthew 5:3 in The Message: “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope.” Describe how that beatitude proved true for Joe and Sarah.
10. Joe and Sarah’s story had a happy ending, but many times life does not provide those. The car crash is fatal, or the marriage breaks up. Those hard times can bring us to the end of ourselves and draw us closer to God, or they can leave us feeling abandoned because as Joe said, God “didn’t fix their lives the way [he] wanted them fixed” (p. 152). How do you think Joe would have ultimately responded to God if Sarah had not survived, and why? What is your response to God when things do not go your way?
11. What do you think of Sarah’s “dream” after she drove off the bridge? During the dream, Annie said, “God didn’t send you here to change things, child. He sent you here so you’d ask him to help change things that you can’t” (p. 160). Discuss ways you might be trying to control parts of your life instead of giving those areas to God. Do you have certain ways to identify these problem issues? Share your techniques for “letting go.”
12. Was Wingtip what you would expect an angel to be? Why or why not? Talk about his role in Mitchell’s life and in Sarah’s.
13. Most of us won’t experience the brink of death as Sarah did, but how can we live as if we had? What can we do on a daily basis to keep our focus on the truly important things? Talk about what living with “Christ in you” (Col. 1:27) means to you. For the next few weeks, ask the Heavenly Father to bring someone specific into your life each day, someone you can help. Schedule a time to meet again and, keeping the ones you’ve helped anonymous, discuss how you feel after this exercise. Is it something you want to continue? Why or why not?
About the Authors
JOYCE MEYER is one of the world’s leading practical Bible teachers. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, she has written more than eighty inspirational books, including The Secret to True Happiness, 100 Ways to Simplify Your Life, the entire Battlefield of the Mind family of books, her first venture into fiction with The Penny, and many others. She has also released thousands of audio teachings, as well as a complete video library. Joyce’s Enjoying Everyday Life® radio and television programs are broadcast around the world, and she travels extensively conducting conferences. Joyce and her husband, Dave, are the parents of four grown children and make their home in St. Louis, Missouri.
DEBORAH BEDFORD is an award-winning author whose novels have been published in eighteen different countries and in a dozen different languages. She and her husband, Jack, have two college-aged children and two dogs. They live in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where they enjoy fly-fishing, horseback riding, and kayaking in the Tetons. Deborah began her career by writing romance novels. As the years passed, she began to understand a calling to write books that reflected spiritual overtones, communicating the message that following the Father can bring a healed life and a glorious adventure. She’s never looked back. Look for other inspirational novels by Deborah, including A Morning Like This, A Rose by the Door, Remember Me, and When You Believe. You can reach Deborah by visiting her Web site at www.deborahbedfordbooks.com. She invites you to be a friend on Facebook: Go to www.facebook.com, Deborah Bedford.
If you liked Any Minute,
you’ll love the New York Times
bestselling novel The Penny!
# New York Times Bestselling Author
JOYCE MAYER
AND
DEBORAH BEDFORD
Jenny Blake has a theory about life: big decisions often don’t amount to much, but little decisions sometimes transform everything. Her theory proves true the summer of 1955, when fourteen-year-old Jenny makes the decision to pick up a penny imbedded in asphalt, and consequently ends up stopping a robbery, getting a job, and meeting a friend who changes her life forever.
Jenny and Miss Shaw form a friendship that dares both of them to confront secrets in their pasts—secrets that threaten to destroy them. Jenny helps Miss Shaw open up to the community around her, while Miss Shaw teaches Jenny to meet even life’s most painful challenges with confidence and faith. This unexpected relationship transforms both characters in ways neither could have anticipated, and the ripple effect that begins in the summer of the penny goes on to bring new life to the people around them, showing how God works in the smallest details. Even in something as small as a penny.
Available now wherever books are sold.
Any Minute: A Novel Page 24
