Play Ball

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Timothy, I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did.  Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.  I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted.  And I will be filled with joy when we are together again.  I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice.  And I know that same faith continues strong in you.  This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.  For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.  2 Timothy 1:3-7

Growing up in a faith-filled family (as Timothy certainly did) doesn’t make anyone a Christian, but it does expose you to what faith looks like, and challenges you to step into the water.  Baseball is something of an analogy for faith.  The Holy Spirit and Satan are the opposing managers of two teams who are to play the game.  God, Who is the umpire (judge) shouts Play Ball, and the teams take their positions on the field.  Paul, a player worthy of election to the Hall of Fame, is no longer playing, but is now a coach.  He saw faith warming-up in Timothy’s bullpen, and he did everything he could to encourage his young protégé to fan the embers into flames.  By all accounts Timothy did just that, and became an on-field leader for his team.  (To flesh out the baseball analogy’s meaning – he became a pastor). 

All of Paul’s second letter to Timothy reads like an elder coach helping a young star player sort out what’s really important, and avoid that which could disqualify his team from any chance at going to the playoffs.  It’s important stuff!

Most analogies break-down at some point.  In the baseball as spiritual warfare analogy, it’s team-choosing that finds holes like Swiss cheese.  Baseball teams have tryouts, where the coach evaluates potential player’s skills.  In matters of faith God doesn’t have to evaluate (guess) about our abilities or usefulness, He is the One who created us.  He knows us better than we know ourselves.  

And that is the most important moment of the game for Timothy.  He was young, and imagined he was out of his league being a pastor.  But he had one thing right; he was willing to listen to his coach, Paul.  And that made all the difference when the Umpire thundered out that important phrase:  Play Ball!

For You Today 

You may not even like baseball, but the whole issue of faith does not allow for personal preference; it is what it is!  You already have faith; the question is how you will exercise that faith.  You will either be on one team or the other when God calls out:  Play Ball!  If you want to be on the winning team with Timothy, you’ll know it’s time to get in the game.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  

To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these:  Facing Your Fear  and  Fear Factor      

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Images without citation are personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

A Misunderstanding

 

Friday, March 19, 2021

Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong.  For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”  1 Kings 3:9

God had promised Solomon a request.  The newly ascended king prayed for an understanding heart so he could govern in a way God would approve, and would be a blessing to the people.  God was pleased.  There is nothing better than power used correctly in Heaven’s eyes.

The difficulties associated with a heart mis-understanding are legion.  My grandmother, a sweet, and normally tender-hearted person, is an example.

My father was introduced to my mother by her brother.  Dad and Uncle Marlen played ball together, and Elwood fell hard when he first saw Cecilia…who, at first, wanted nothing to do with that boy.  (But that’s a story for another time).

Back at the ballfield, Marlen was the pitcher, and Elwood the catcher.  Uncle Marlen’s Mom, Carrie, didn’t attend ball games, except for one time; it was the time signals got mixed and misunderstanding happened.  Here’s how.

In between innings, when teams switch from offense to defense, the pitcher will normally take some practice-throws to warm-up his arm before facing the first batter.  When he makes his last throw, he will step to one side while the catcher throws the ball to second base.  The ball will then be thrown around the infield as something of a ritual.  On that last pitch it was Uncle Marlen’s habit to step to the left side of the pitcher’s mound, and Daddy Elwood, the catcher, would throw the ball to second base slightly to the right.  Pitcher steps left (always); catcher throws right (habit).  Step left, throw right.

One day Grandma Carrie came to watch her son, Marlen, pitch.  At the beginning of an inning Uncle Marlen began his warm-up pitches.  After several tosses he nodded to Daddy Elwood that the next would be the last, and the ritual would begin, pitch…step left…catcher throws right.  Only this time Marlen stepped right, and Elwood, a creature of habit, fired the ball…also right, and right into the middle of my Uncle Marlen’s back.  It is Brownworth family lore that there were two screams that broke the air in that strange moment….Marlen’s scream of surprise pain, and Grandma Carrie’s oath that Elwood must die!

It was probably more than 25 years later I first heard that story (and I’m certain it grew more colorful each time it was retold, both before and since).  But Dad’s punch line to telling that story was always consistent, that Grandma Carrie never really forgave him for assaulting her sweet, innocent baby boy. 

We always laughed about it.  It’s easy to do that in the comfortable seat of time having passed, along with pain long ago healed.  But, in real time, it was something of a discomfort for Elwood, who was at a distinct disadvantage after that fateful baseball day, trying to court Marlen’s older sister, Cecilia.  My brother and I are living proof that he was successful, despite Grandma Carrie’s conspiracy theory that that boy was plotting murder on the family.

A lesson I learned from this little bit of family history is that misunderstandings happen because of many reasons, but often there are two culprits that regularly are present in the mayhem.  The first is poor communication.  In the case of Uncle Marlen and Daddy Elwood, step-left, throw-right was the habit.  The failure in communication was, depending on which side of the family tells the story, the pitcher, or the catcher.  Marlen didn’t tell Elwood he was going to step right.  Elwood assumed it would be left…he just threw where he always threw.  The second culprit is Grandma Carrie’s jumping to conviction.  When the ball game ritual “went ugly”, her immediate judgment was mama lion-like.  Nobody was going to do that to her son! 

For You Today

Politics, family, church things, and friends…hold off on the judgment…someday it might just be you stepping right instead of left

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image:  Brownworth Family photo    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©