Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Time for baseball

First of all, some definitions:

This is not baseball.

This is baseball, as is this. This is close.

This is how you take part for yourself, at least if you're in Minnesocold. And it's the more important part of baseball, whatever your skill level. Or, in my case, lack thereof.

It's not towering homers, cannonlike throws from deep center to home plate, or lightning speed. Rather, it's the patience and wisdom to learn how the game is played, and it has a lot to do with walking with Christ. It's the little things that count. Do you throw all the way to home (and miss by 30 feet?), or do you get it safely to the shortstop? Do you wait for your pitch, or do you swing at everything? Do you warm up?

Ephesians 6 has a similar picture of the Roman infantryman. Banish thoughts of the Germanic epics and Sargeant York from your minds here, because that's not how the Romans fought. Rather, his job was to stand, shove, and stab. His sword was short. He was only safe and effective if he stayed with his unit in formation.

Kinda like baseball. That glove is small, and it doesn't do any good if the pitcher ends up in right field. So play ball--just not in a dome!

4 comments:

Mercy Now said...

Good analogy. It takes work and we tend to forget that as far as the kingdom goes. We want to evangelize and save the whole world at once rather than continuing with the hard effort piece by piece.

BTW, so do y'all still play baseball when it's snowing and sub zero temp?

Bike Bubba said...

Not snow (that's hockey season, bro!), but certainly when it's in the 40s with cold rain. First game is next Monday.

Mercy Now said...

Wow, that's true sportsmanship cuz down here in sunny FL, we don't play ultimate frisbee when it rains. In fact, we only play when temps are between 60 and 85 degrees. Below 60 becomes hard to breath and above 85 becomes dehydrated:o)

Bike Bubba said...

Sportsmanship, or just being plain nuts. :^)