After India beat Sri Lanka in the final group game of the 2019 World Cup without breaking a sweat, riding on a nearly 190-run opening stand between Rohit Sharma and K. L. Rahul to top the table and set up a World Cup Semi-Final meeting with fourth-placed New Zealand on 9 July 2019 (which also happens to be the day of the 18th wedding anniversary of Evan and I) – I hit the rewind button on Rohit Sharma’s career.
“How to cook maggi – boil with hot water ,add masala and wait until Rohit Sharma gets out..” That was a troll Tweet about Rohit during the days when consistency was far from him his pre-2013 career (he made his ODI debut for India in 2007). In a series in which he played 5 ODIs Vs Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, the year being 2012, he scored a grand total 13 runs in five innings (Read that again: 13 runs off five completed innings). His scores in the five games according to a NDTV 4 August 2012 post: 5-0-0-4-4. Bowled, bowled, LBW, LBW and bowled. A sarcastic tweet was put after his last dismissal: “No difference between Rohit Sharma’s legs and the stumps. Both don’t move unless hit by a ball.” It was a the lowest total score by a specialist batsmen in any ODI series ever!
Rohit Sharma, the man who once scored the least among of runs among specialist batsmen ever in a ODI series, is the present highest run-scorer with another possible two games to go in the 2019 World Cup. What a transformation! What a stupendous U-Turn! His series of scores in the 9 group games in the 2019 World Cup: “Against South Africa, Rohit led a tricky chase for India with an unbeaten 122 before scoring 57 against Australia. He then smashed 140 against Pakistan before missing out against Afghanistan and West Indies. He then smashed 102 against England, 104 against Bangladesh before scoring before scoring 103 against Sri Lanka” (as the India Today put it). As I write these lines, Rohit is likely to beat Sachin’s World record of 673 runs in a single ODI World Cup with two possible full innings to go!
In his interview to the media post the Sri Lanka game, Rohit Sharma talked about the secret for this totally amazing transformation: his family (his wife and little daughter) who help him stay away from thinking about his cricket exploits, his forever focus on the present… etc.
Do you want your life to be transformed completely in every sense of the word? Are you tired of your old life? Then you need Jesus. The Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17). A living daily relationship with Jesus will transform your life! That’s what the Bible teaches! Let the Holy Spirit fill you and your life will be changed. The Bible says in I Samuel 10:6 – “Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another man” (NASB). This Jesus transformed my life through his Spirit. Let me illustrate that with couple of incidents from my School life.
I could not even say two lines on the stage when I was in school. The presence of some pretty girls in a school drama I was in made me super nervous. So nervous that I fluffed the lines I had to say that school drama. I went back home that day and told the Lord Jesus: “Never on stage for you, Lord!” But then the Lord Jesus filled me with his Holy Spirit. And I went back to the very same stage – a wooden stage in the Ida Scudder School – and preached a Gospel message for about 10 minutes (on 9 August 1991, as a 16 year old 12th grader). I preached without notes on the subject of Hell. There were about 500 people who listened to it – both students and teachers. A girl fainted at the end of that message. I have not stopped preaching hence forth. It was a miraculous transformation – a transformation that happened because of Jesus who died for me on the Cross and His gracious Spirit who fills me with spiritual gifts.
Would you give your life to Jesus? He can completely transform your life? Would you stay filled with the Holy Spirit? Your life will never be the same!
(Rev. Dr. Duke Jeyaraj is the founder of Grabbing the Google Generation from Gehenna Mission. This is a reader supported Indian ministry to present day people. Find out more at www.dukev.org. Read Duke’s articles here: www.dukewords.com. Watch Duke’s messages at www.youtube.com/visitduke. Follow Duke on Facebook: www.facebook.com/dukebook).
