...And the home of the brave! Play ball! One of my favorite rites of Spring is here--the opening of baseball season. And, hey, the Texas Rangers are already camped out in third place (out of four) in their division! Seriously, though, one of the reasons I really like baseball is that it offers so many insights into the game we call life. For example...
...one of the keys to being successful in baseball (and life) is learning how to manage failure--dealing with that which has gone awry. Ty Cobb is major league baseball's all-time batting leader with a career batting average of .366 (for baseball non-enthusiasts, that means he got a hit in only 36.6% of his official at bats). In other words, the greatest hitter, ever, failed 63.4% of the time, almost twice as often as he succeeded.
So, what do we do when we fail? (That's right, I said "when.") Well, we can either let failure become fatal, which is like the baseball player who lets his first error get in his head causing him to commit additional ones, or we can learn how to successfully manage our failures. And, if we're Christ-followers we have the ultimate Manager to coach us through those failures.
A Christ-follower who messed up says to Christ the Coach, "Okay, my bad! I blew it!"
A Christ-follower who messed up says to Christ the Coach, "Okay, my bad! I blew it!"
Christ the Coach says to His error-prone follower, "No problem. I have it covered. But, what did you learn?"
The forgiven Christ-follower says, "Uh, I was out of position to make the play."
Christ the Coach says, "Right! You'll keep getting better. Get back out there."
Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. (Acts 3:19, NASB)
3 comments:
That's a GREAT word Joe. Too many times we think that we're "out" permanently. Unfortunately, instead of encouraging us when we get back to the dugout, too many Christians throw it in our faces and then remind us of our previous failure when we try to get back up to bat. Not the way it's supposed to be is it!
Thanks for the good word and encouragement.
Drew
Thanks for the encouragement!
Eric and Kristi S.
Good analogy...sometimes we ball players feel too old to have another chance, but we know that isn't true on God's team. He may just change our playing position. Thanks for your persistence in lifting up. I needed it. AJT(C)L
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