Growing up, daydreams were typically of being a
baseball star (or a singer in a band). Many years later,
parallels keep coming, between those youthful
imaginings and trying to live as a player on Christ’s
team. What do you think of these:
The best teams have a lot of losses. The two teams
playing in the World Series this year lost about 45% of
their combined regular season games! (More the case
with baseball, the most daily, grind-it-out sport.)
Nobody wins them all! Stay loose, humble but
confident. Not too high after a win or too low after a
loss. The ones who stick it out through the lowest
periods, keep putting one front in front of the other,
learning from mistakes and making adjustments, might
still be hanging around when the play-offs start. On the
Lord’s team, those who keep coming to God for mercy
and help are those who last.
It’s how you finish that matters. The teams in both
leagues that won the most games by far, did not make it
through the play-offs. Maybe it’s not fair. But
especially in baseball, it’s who gets hot and puts it all
together in October.
As I was recently reading in Jeremiah, If a nation I
warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not
inflict on it the disaster I had planned (18:8-9). Before
our season ends, there’s time to get where we need to be.
Our job for the day is making good at-bats. You
can smash the ball on the button but right at the
shortstop. Other times you tap the pitch off the end of
the bat just enough to make it out of the infield, and find
yourself safe at first base. So much is beyond our
control. Just “put the ball in play” and you have a
chance.
In my weekday role of offering support to families
with a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds, each
home I enter feels like I’m stepping up to bat. (Alright,
call me over-dramatic!) I don’t know what pitch is
coming. I may foul out. But if I prayerfully try to stay
alert and “make contact,” something good can come
from it.
It’s the team’s success that counts. How often does
the star player say, I’m not after hitting the most home
runs or winning the MVP. I just want to help my team
win the World Series. Every player has a role. It’s when
we all offer what is ours to give, with love, that Christ’s
team keeps winning.
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