In praise of the sports metaphor – three

it doesn’t take a degree to understand that i’m a baseball zealot.  not so much professional baseball…too much money…too many premadonnas…too many agents…too many owners…too many, well…you get the picture.  but the game.  ahh…the game.

there is so much more to baseball than the average fan realizes.  games within the game.  battles of mind and heart and strategy and statistics and patterns and traditions.  complex.  fascinating.  

there’s an unstated and unwritten rule in baseball that makes moms cry and dads yell and umpires turn their heads away.  it makes even the best baseball players decide whether they are man enough to play the game the way it was drawn up in it’s mythical origins by abner doubleday in 1839.  that unwritten rule states:

” if you do anything to disrespect, harm, or take advantage of an opposing player…or the game, itself…you or a member of your team is going to hit by the hardest fastball the opposing pitcher can throw.  This act of ‘cowboy justice’ will usually happen to the first batter to hit after the disrespectful action has occurred.”

there are other ways that justice can be enforced, but this is the primary method.  when this retribution is going to be imposed, everybody knows it…especially the next player to step into the batter’s box.  he knows he’s going to get hit.  he doesn’t know when it’s going to happen…just that it will.  it may be the first pitch or the second, but it’s gonna happen.

as he waits for his moment of destiny, his teammates are all yelling the famous words of unity, dedication, and commitment: “take one for the team!”  in the heat of battle and the passion of the moment, the appointed player has to decide if the goal of the team means more than his personal comfort and safety.  will he shrink back in fear or boldly face the mortar of the enemy with pride, determination and sense of purpose that only someone who senses the cause is greater than his own life?  (ok…it’s a little dramatic, but you get the point!)

when i think about the journey of the follower of christ, i know it is not very politically correct to talk of the christian life as a battle, but that’s imagery of scripture.  and that’s the reality of our lives, if we are serious about surrendering all for the king.  and we cannot do it alone.  we need each other.

where are you being called on to take one for the team?

whose back do you have?

are you living for a cause that is greater than your own life…or is it just words?

what means more to you than your (or your family’s) personal comfort and safety?

are you sure which team you’re playing for?

batter up!

#battle #enemy #team #unity