BILL STERN relates the story of a sandlot baseball game
the batter clouts the ball... Two more runs score. The third basemen chatters encouragement to his pitcher. The man calls out, "What's the score?"
"It's 18 to nothin'." the little tyke shouts.
"Aren't you discouraged?"
"Heck, no," the boy replies. "We ain't been to bat yet.
That's the kind of enthusiasm we need in our spiritual lives. We get to bat every day, and we need to know how to handle the strike-outs. Baseball is a metaphor for life, though I haven't figured out the spitting yet.
"Baseball is a game of long-sufferingthe hard times, bad hops, bad luck, failure-at-the-rate-of-70%-or-better hitting, and all the other things that happen that try one's patience..." PETER G. DOUMIT, What I Know about Baseball is What I Know about Life.
"The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage in weapons is in my favour, and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting." HANK AARON
We've got Jesus on our side. We've got prayer. The percentages are in our favour. Let the devil do the fretting!
So we have to work with our fellow team mates. When short story writer Flannery O'Connel joined the Catholic Church she said, "The sermons were so terrible, there must be something else there to make them come back." Are we getting the "something else" when we attend services?
A nurse joined the church because, "When Catholic people die, they always die at peace." The reasons for committing to God are there, if we look for them. The same reasons are present in other Christian denominations. I use the Catholic examples because that's where I was drafted.
I was struck by a line from Acts 13:22 where God says, "I have selected Davida man after my own heart, who will carry out my purpose." And I wondered about David's adultery with Bathsheba, then killing her husband in battle (2 Samuel:11).
You see, God chooses us not because we are perfect, but because of what will happen to us as we follow his promptings. Remember Jonah who tried to run away from his assignment, and later wanted God to smite the sinners instead of saving them. Jonah had a lot to learn.
We have a lot to learn and that's the best reason for following our calling. "The work God gives you to do for the good of others is for your good too." We may not be beautiful yet, but we can do something beautiful for God. (from a reflection on Jonah 3:3 - The Word Among Us for Lent 2014).
WE should follow the advice of baseball guru YOGI BERRA:
Don't make "too many wrong mistakes".
"If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be."
"If you don't know where you're going, you might end up some place else."
NOLAN RYAN said something in this baseball/life metaphor: "One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to, reach down and prove something."
So check the line-up. God holds us all in a special place in His heart and on His team. Take advantage of every time at bat. As a famous YOGI once said, "The game's isn't over until it's over."
