Invitation and Sir Richard Hadlee
Sir Richard Hadlee adored by the New Zealand public is less so by the English cricket fans, admired maybe but not adored. You see Hadlee took too many English wickets during his stellar Test Career. But for those of us interested in the laws of success and failure, you may be surprised to learn that Sir Richard actually bowled 22,000 balls to take his 431 Test wickets. That means Hadlee bowled 21,569 balls that failed to take the wicket he desired. Interviewed about his career, Hadlee however revealed his bowling strategy. He said that he had a jack, queen, king, ace, bowling plan, which set the batsman up for the ace wicket taking ball. So in the midst of 21,569 balls of seeming failure not all were wasted, in fact they were preparing for taking the batsman’s wicket.
In the area of invitation there will be seeming failures, when people say no, but perhaps we can invite people strategically. Perhaps our jack invitation is simply to invite them to eat with us and another Christian friend. Perhaps our queen invitation, is to invite them to do something fun with our Christian friends. Perhaps our king invitation is to invite them to a study involving our friends, and perhaps by then our ace invitation can be to our home group, our church service, or into a relationship with God. The jack, queen, king, ace of invitation