Nine Innings of Life

My favorite time of the year is finally here. Yes, it is fall, but more than that, the World Series! It is

especially fun knowing your team is on the way once again. I was able to go to the St Louis Cardinals World Series game in 2011, Game 2. What a wow factor to be in the stands cheering on your team in a sea of red. In Game 7 they won the 2011 World Series.
Can you imagine if you were in the middle of the field and the entire stadium was cheering for you? I wonder if life would be easy having all those cheers encouraging you and motivating you to do your best. However, amongst all the cheering, there is likely also one shouting “boo,” especially when something goes wrong and or someone dislikes you and wants to let you know.

How is baseball like life?

 

First, there are rules. Outs are defined by a list of criteria. Hits are determined by the parameters of the ball diamond. Nine innings constitute a full game, but there is no time limit and not knowing when the game will end. On rare occasions those innings are expanded. Like the game for St Louis against the LA Dodgers on October 11, 2013, playing until the 13th inning.  Sometimes rules are boundaries. In every relationship healthy boundaries are mandatory. Boundaries are established to ensure the safety of each person that enters into the relationship. Crossing boundaries may violate the other person; the rule was broken. Someone may be an enabler to an alcoholic, providing the drink, and before you know it the ninth inning is here, the final pitch thrown and the game is over with the final out. Someone may have lost their life to substance abuse; the other enabled by supporting the habit and did not do anything by calling a time-out for help. Know your boundaries and stick to them. Be open in your relationship about your boundaries and respect the other person’s boundaries as well.

 Second, a group of players makes up the team: pitchers, catchers, basemen, out-fielders, etc.  Together, they become the team, individual players that work together to win the game. They fight together through the last inning of the game, hoping for victory against their opponent. A team can be a group of people or a select few in your life that are your cheerleaders: family members, co-workers, your work-out buddy or even your minister. Whoever it may be, your close circle of supporters, it is necessary to have that one who will help you know when to steal a base, to take that chance and to hold you accountable. It is also important to have those team members to help you to know when to stay on base or slide when in danger. A team comes together and cheers you on. However, the coach’s job is to play fair and to give you that extra advice needed to play the best game.

Third, there are “umpires” or enforcers to keep you on the straight and narrow path. It is interesting how the umpire calls strikes, balls, outs, and tosses unruly players and spectators out of the game. Umpires are those people in our life that helps our conscious be safe. In life, you may run across people similar to an umpire that makes a ruling or a judgment call that is not satisfactory to you. If you are an umpire in someone’s life be very careful. If you happen to judge someone by what others say, how will you truly understand who they really are? If you think you know everything about that person before giving them an opportunity to show you otherwise, you are selling yourself and the other person short. It is always best to examine your own character first and think about how you are going to approach that person, giving them the benefit, before judging them.

Fourth, there are judgment calls. Umpires have to train and make judging calls against a foul, a strike, safe, out, ball or a time out call. They call it as they see it and are sometimes wrong. There is nothing worse than an umpire making a quick determination and later finding out he was wrong. A spectator may think he saw the opposite of the umpire’s call and “boo” out to the field, but a replay of action will either correct the spectator or the umpire. Think carefully before making a judgment call. It is a challenge to contain our thoughts. Therefore, do not judge others by your own thoughts. Everyone is living a different life than you are. What you feel is right for you may not be right for them. Life’s curveballs, right or wrong, can be the best hit for another person. Sometimes we have to allow others to make their own mistakes and own decisions. Sometimes our mistakes can be a blessing for them. 

Fifth, there are mistakes made during a ball game. Baseball players make mistakes. Whether they decide to throw to first base, when the easy out was at second can be a costly mistake. What do we remember? The mistake or the game they won? We all make mistakes, however, do not harbor the mistakes of another person. Those thoughts are cancerous and can consume you. One negative may destroy a mountain of positives. I learned from a mentor a long time ago the following saying: “If you look at the bad in a person, there is enough to hate them. If you look at the good in a person, there is enough to love them.” If people are truly trying to play the game fairly, then allow the memory of the fun times to remain and expulse the mistake. Often a team member decides to move on. It is a difficult choice of letting go of someone you truly admire. Capture those moments in life and remember the good about them.

Sixth, there are always disrupters during a game. What do you do with the squirrels on the outfield or the streakers, both which disrupt the games? Granted they can create bad memories, but if you understand the bad, which happens in your life, and release it through forgiveness, you can enjoy the rest of the game. One can play the victim and complain they were taken advantage of or become the victor and look at it all as part of the game and focus on the positive moments, like when your team won. Even when you lose a game, it becomes part of who you are because of the experience.

Seventh, there are sacrifices made for the benefit of the team. Often times our team member sacrifices themselves to get a runner home. In life, our sacrifices are similar. Parents sacrifice for their children. Spouses should sacrifice for each other. Sacrificing is putting aside your intentions for that moment to yield for another person to live in their intention for that moment.  This creates a team; it causes a bond.

Eighth, stealing bases is encouraged in baseball. A player has to leave first base and steal second, or gamble leaving third base for home plate to score. Stealing bases takes risks in a chance to advance to the next base. In life, opportunities come along and you need to decide if you are going to “steal ahead” to move forward in your life, taking a chance you are making the right decision. It is a gamble that requires careful thought and maybe sacrifice.  Sometimes ‘stealing to get ahead’ is discouraged.  Stealing a base or “taking a risk” allows you to advance your faith. Peter took that chance of ‘stealing the chance’ to walk on water. His faith grew because he took the chance to walk, where no human had been able to in the past. Don’t forget there are signs in baseball, from coaches and other team members, who point and give you the go ahead to advance. Watch for what God is doing in your life, so that you can advance.

Ninth, there are strikes and there are outs. Baseball players are real on the field. There isn’t anywhere to hide, but in the dugout.  The most valuable endowment we can give those closest to us is honesty. Yet we often suppress our true selves from friends, dreading we won't be acknowledged or loved if we let them see the real us. Often, we show parts of ourselves that conceal who we really are. If we hide too much behind false images, we run the risk of losing track of what is real and what is false. We become actors instead of real people, trying to please others. Sometimes we strike out in people’s lives. Sometimes when we get caught not being who we are to be, then we could be out of that person’s life.

When we overpower our fear of letting others in, we are able to see ourselves honestly. To know and accept you is to be a person of value. Life is too short to be lived in hiding. Accept yourself for who you are and embrace the freedom and live life being honest to yourself and others. You are one of life’s Most Valuable Players.  Be known as a MVP in life! Now, let’s get out there and play ball. The inning has just begun and in the end of our life the World Series begins!

By faith (Forging Attitude In Trusting Him)

By faith (Forging Attitude In Trusting Him)



Slow down, lest we forget our Purpose

It can be a busy day; often times there are more busy days than the lack of them.  The busyness twirls the mind around like a fair ride that can leave you dizzy and wondering why you got on the ride in the first place. Life can be like that ride and depending on what you make of it will determine if you desire to enjoy the fun or decide to never to get on the scary ride again.

Or you leave one room for another room with a set purpose in mind. Once you get to your destination, there you become side-tracked and forget your purpose for going there in the first place. You become frustrated because you knew you had to do something, but now cannot quite put the finger on it. No matter how many reminders you might have, no matter how many times you try to remember, it eludes you like a wild animal breaking free from your grip.

Our attitudes may define who we are if we are not careful. It is easy to adapt and to relax and become the situation. Almost like a frog in a cold kettle set over a fire that slowly becomes accustomed to the heating water, until it is boiled. How often do we forget our purpose in life? How often do we forget our role in our marriage? How often do we forget who we are as an individual? Many have said that they ‘lost their identity’ and that they are now ‘finding themselves.’

When we lose sight of our main focus we tend to forget. We forget who we are. We lose that identify and purpose for our life. Oftentimes it is like chasing the wind as it carries a piece of paper, our life.  That paper is a written note proclaiming who we are and where we are to go with an intent purpose in mind.

For some people, they seek definition of who they are through their friends. They seek others for approval of their relationships.  They seek others for happiness. They seek their life in this or in that, yet end up empty each and every time. They feel if they tried harder, focused harder, the answer they sought would be found.

 One passage in the bible has always intrigued me. Jesus knew the hearts of men. Just like the night of his betrayal and before it even happened, Jesus explained to Peter that he would deny Him three times and as a reminder of what He told Peter, a rooster would crow after the third denial. This was so that Peter would believe and remind him of what his heart did. Yet, that is not the passage I had in mind.

The passage begins in John 5.  John writes about a man who came to the healing pool daily. He had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. He came to the pool to be healed because angels would come down and stir the water and who entered the pool first would be healed. Jesus knows the hearts of men, but today was different than any other day. Jesus approached the man and He asked the man, “Do you want to be healed?” Why? If I have a purpose of going somewhere then I know why I am there. The man wanted to be healed. Jesus knew it. Why did Jesus notice the man with this question and not heal him like he did countless others?

Jesus wanted to awaken the purpose. We forget who we are and what we are to become when we become busy in our life, or when we tell our self lies, listen to others. While our intent of our purpose is the desire to be healed, we forgot what to do. Misplaced keys, misplaced cell phone because we became intense on the side attractions and so busy we forget to create a memory of where we put our item so that we can retrieve it later.  Have you forgotten the purpose of why you came to Christ and have forgotten how to live? Maybe religion has suffocated you and snatched the true freedom you were called to be in. Maybe it was a marriage that suffocated you in not reaching your full potential. It might even be selfish thoughts, which have prevented you from obtaining your full potential. Sometimes it can be the distraction or the self-defeat thoughts we tell ourselves that we are never good enough. I will never reach my goal, so what is the use. The invalid man in John 5 told Jesus that he couldn’t roll into the pool and that no one would ever help him, and thus, that he would never be healed. He lost sight of his purpose.

What is your purpose in life? Do you want to be healed? Find that inner voice deep and focus on Christ that will give you the power and the energy to walk and to be healed. The question to ask is, “Are you willing to take the first step that might seem so unnatural at first?” We have to rid ourselves of the past in order to walk the past. To rid the past is through forgiveness of us and others. To be healed is to understand that the power is not in the water. The power is in our determination to focus on Christ and doing what He commands us to do. The next time you feel misplaced, look up and pray and stay in constant communication with Him. He is reminding us every day our intentions and purpose of walking with Him. Others may say too fast to soon, not to do this, not to do that, but is it the will on man’s voice or the will of the Father that knows best? Be still and focus on Him and listen to his voice and you will find that purpose He has placed into your heart.

Will you be courageous enough to take the first step and walk?

The next time life deals you with a blow and you feel paralyzed, do not forget your intent and purpose of where you are going. When we walk with Him, he will guide us into the paths of righteousness. Are you willing to have the faith that Forges Attitude In Trusting Him?