This past weekend our oldest son’s team participated in an out-of-state competitive baseball
tournament that featured 32 squads hailing from eight different states. While
uniforms and pre-game rituals varied from team to team, some things remained
the same across the board. No, I’m not just referring to the over-the-top
parents and coaches that seem to have their very identity and value riding on
each and every win. That is a real and present danger to be addressed at
another time. Today I’m talking about a common attitude I witnessed in many of
these young players – one that often resembles our spiritual approach to life.
The
response that seems the same in Illinois as it is in Louisiana, as it is in the
Oklahoma boys we are raising is this: when a mistake is made by these young
players, unnecessary pressure is immediately applied to try to make up for that
mistake. So if a kid makes an error that leads to five unearned runs to put his
team behind, he immediately tries to make up for that with one swing of the bat.
The problem is, there’s no such thing as a 5-run homer. Making up for our
failure isn’t always possible in that way. Sometimes one can only do what he
can do. A player must move forward with the hand he’s dealt. Unfortunately, I
saw so many young players boot balls around the infield and have bad at-bats,
only to return to the field or batter’s box determined to avenge their blunder
with the very next pitch. Baseball doesn’t work that way, and neither
does life.
Sometimes
there is no easy fix. Sometimes our mistakes carry a weight heavier than that
day. Often our next best opportunity to make things right looms several weeks or months away and is often well-disguised. When that’s the case, the best thing one can
do is move on by letting go and doing whatever can be done. Continuing to work
from such a compounding deficit is wearisome and counterproductive.
Again,
there is no 5-run homer and no eraser pitch. There is no way to undo errors that have been made. However,
in Christ there is grace and mercy for every moment we face. There is a way to
start afresh and find rest – not just a second chance at being perfect, but
actually being made perfect in Christ. If just given another chance to figure things
out on our own, we’d find ourselves back in the same dire position, desperately
needing and hoping for another restart. What we find is that through the cross
of Christ, there is forgiveness for every failure. In Jesus, all of our mistakes have been paid for and
removed from us - not just the bad at-bats from our sinful past, but the errors and opportunities
we will kick around in the future. Our heavenly Father doesn’t see our
mediocrity, our bloopers, and utter insufficiency, but rather, He sees Christ’s
perfection covering us. For those in Christ, He sees us as He sees His Son - perfect and blameless without condemnation. The
guilt and shame that accompanied our life of never measuring up is taken away.
In Jesus we find rest from the exhaustion of trying to satisfy a debt we could
never atone.
While
it breaks my heart to watch 11-year-old boys miss the joy of being kids playing
a game, it would be far more tragic to see them spiritually respond in the same
manner. As adult believers, we too are prone to react similarly. Personally, some of
my most painful seasons have been lived forgetting such gospel truth. We have all
fallen short. Not one of us has measured up. There is no effort we can muster
to make things right…but for the grace of God. In Him there is newness,
forgiveness, mercy, and hope in abundance. May we step up to plate each day reminded of God's amazing love, and experience the fullness of joy that comes with being
His children. In our highlights and our hiccups, might we remember the cross, and
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