It does not come as a surprise to many of you that I love the game of Baseball! I love to watch it, play it, coach it, and read about it. Some days I can’t get enough of the game––others, I get fed up with it! Coaching in youth baseball, I get quite an interesting perspective of the game. From losing a close game, to losing only one game in the season during the Championship to finish 16 – 1. Then there are the really close to “UNHOLY” attitudes that people get in youth baseball. It definitely brings out the passion in people (coaches, fans, parents, everyone, even the players themselves).
I sometimes wonder if we as Christ Followers put too much attention on things that have no eternal value. Now I know scriptures teach us “to do everything as unto the Lord” (Col. 3:23), yet I really have to wonder if this refers to the things we are called to do in our work? Maybe it means just our service to the Kingdom of heaven. Does it really include the “hobbies” and escape mechanisms that we have built into our lives? Don’t get mad at me…I am just “blogging out loud” right now.
You see, I ask this question because, far too often, I see in my own life that I spend a lot of energy doing the “non-eternal” things: practicing my “swing,” taking ground balls, and hitting the cut-off man. I don’t spend as much time praying to my Heavenly Father, reading the Word of God, and teaching others with a lifestyle that mirrors “What Did Jesus Do!”
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22 that we should “do everything we can to save some!” I ponder that today with you. Does that mean go all out? Does it mean “leave it on the field?” Does it mean show up in “their” world instead of staying in our own? Or does it mean do EVERYTHING we do AS UNTO THE LORD!
I think I have answered my own question today––I will do everything I do as unto the Lord! Tomorrow…I will have the same goal…and the day after that…and the day after that one as well. But I have to make a conscience decision each day that I will do all things as unto the Lord. By doing so, I go all out, leave it on the field, and show up in their world––because THAT IS WHAT JESUS DID!
Except kick dirt on the umpires shoe! From now on, I will turn the other cheek