Sunday, April 09, 2006

In The Game of Life, It's Always Baseball Season

Do you smell that? Do you recognize that smell? Yes, friends, it is baseball season. America's passtime. Church softball. Summer is near. I have had baseball on the mind lately. The Red Sox are doing well (ok, not well, but FABULOUS). Our first church softball game is this Thursday night. Dustin is talking about Fred McGriff a lot. Everywhere you look, it's baseball baseball baseball.

I like baseball; it's not my favorite sport, but I like it. It may not have the beauty that soccer does, the power that football does, or the drunk and rowdy fans that hockey has, but it has intelligence. Baseball is a thinking man's game. You have to be ahead of the game at every at bat. You have to use your resources wisely. You have to react more quickly than in any other sport. Baseball, real baseball, requires you to analyze every play, every pitch, every swing. Attention to detail is paramount to success.

So where am I going with this? Just chill dude (or" just chill girl" if you are female). Don't rush me. Anyway, you know you want this post to go on longer so you can have an excuse to not be doing your work at your desk right now.

Anyway, today I was thinking about how much life is like baseball. Yeah, metaphors are lame, but here me out here. I promise I won't compare God to a pressure-washer who "washes away the sins off our dirty dirty sidewalks that we call souls". But I've done a lot of thinking today, a LOT of thinking today, and somehow baseball just merged into what I was thinking about. And it all fits.

So here we go. Life is one big baseball game. We all have a certain number of at-bats, if you will, times when we are called upon to step up to the plate and take a swing. We step out of the dugout, gaze at the screaming crowd, and walk up to the plate. We dig our feet into the batters box and take our stance, ready for whatever life is going to throw at us. We wait for the pitch. The Pitcher winds up, delivers the pitch, and......

Swing and a miss. A curveball? I thought life only threw fastballs. That's not fair, I want another pitch.

Swing and a miss. A change-up?! Give me a fastball! Another pitch, please.

Swing and a miss. Strike three, you're out. A slider? Are you kidding me? Why won't life give me an easy pitch to hit!

Ah, and therein lies the problem. The Pitcher doesn't give us easy pitches to hit. After all, what good is a batter who can only hit fastballs? He's no good, I tell ya. No good at all.

But that doesn't mean you can't hit a curveball. If you study The Pitcher you can hit almost anything. If you watch the spin on the ball you can hit a slider. If you are patient and don't swing to early you can hit a change-up. And if you follow that ball all the way in and adjust your swing accordingly you can even hit those pesky curveballs.

But most importantly, you must know that you can't hit jack squat if you aren't practicing your swing. Nobody hits a home run the first time they pick up a bat. And even more importantly, you gotta study that scouting report. You better know the Man who is throwing you all these pitches.

Striking out because you couldn't hit the pitches is certainly not a good thing, but what is even worse is not swinging the bat at any pitch and striking out (ahem Troy ahem). Sometimes we are scared, sometimes we aren't ready for the pitch, and sometimes we are too busy waving at the cute girl in the crowd to really care what's going on in the game.

I'm not going to explain the metaphor; take it however you want. But here is my main point: life is gonna throw you curveballs., so you gotta adjust to it. It's cliche, but it's unbelievably true. I've had about 12 curveballs thrown at me this weeks alone. Did I hit any of them? Maybe, I don't really know yet. I guess we'll see.

And keep in mind that even if you make contact with the ball, it won't always be a hit. But I don't think that God wants us to get a hit every time. He just wants us to put the ball in play. And maybe that's why He throws so many different pitches: to get us to hit the ball in different ways. Sometimes he let's us hit a home run, and sometimes he let's us ground out to second. And even if we strike out swinging...hey, at least we learned something from that strikeout and hopefully next time up we will put the bat on the ball.

I'll be honest, I hate adjusting for curveballs, I hate trying to read sliders, and I really hate being patient on change-ups. But that's the way it's gotta be. That's the only way I will become a better baseball player. And I think I am starting to become ok with that.

......I hope that my metaphor has not been too incredibly lame for you........

posted by Wes @ 11:47 PM

9 Comments:

At 4/10/2006 09:50:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What about when the Pitcher aims for your head?

 
At 4/10/2006 11:33:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

dont charge the mound.... you'll get whooped!! that's an automatic

 
At 4/10/2006 02:57:00 PM, Blogger Jon Canler said...

I'm down...I liked the part about "knowing the Man who is throwing all these pitches." If you want to hit the ball (succeed in life as a Christian), you gotta know the one throwing the pitches (God, who allows all to happen). You gotta study the pitcher and practice the swing, etc. You gotta be prepared for the things he is gonna throw (You gotta study the Word, be in prayer, be obedient to Him). Then, you will be able to hit the ball (bear fruit).
It's all about the Scriptures Wes Cooper. It's all about the Scriptures. John 15:5 says,"I am the vine. You are the branches. If you abide in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing." It's the Scriptures

 
At 4/10/2006 09:16:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Look Chandler, the phone calls have gotta stop.....

 
At 4/10/2006 09:53:00 PM, Blogger dc said...

who's calling balls and strikes if God's pitching?

and by the way, if God's the pitcher, doesn't that make Him the opponent?

"Jesus Wept!"
There's no crying in baseball!

 
At 4/10/2006 11:16:00 PM, Blogger d blake said...

Geoff Moore did the whole baseball/life metaphor thing in the "Homerun" song. The pitcher was Satan. God was the coach.

 
At 4/10/2006 11:24:00 PM, Blogger Wes said...

I remember that song, but I think I was too young to really care what it meant.

 
At 4/11/2006 02:13:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I want to sing a song about baseball===
IIII...PLLAAAAY.... right field, it's important you know,
you gotta know how to catch,
you gotta know how to throw, that's why i play in right field, out where the dandelions grow!!

Thanks for listening, goodnight everyone, and don't forget to tip your waitress!

 
At 4/12/2006 10:59:00 AM, Blogger Woody said...

Nice metaphor, I like it, and now I want to go play a baseball game.

Canler, its all about knowing your Lord and living for His glory....Isa 43:7.

 

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