About 2 weeks ago I thought that I had enough. I mean enough!!! I was tired of this roller coaster ride I was on. My wife and son were home visiting family and poor ol' me had another bad outing. Familiar territory to anybody? Yea, its a tough place to be in sometimes. So, I was on the road by myself to just wallow in my pity.
I never thought I would be in independent ball. And never thought I would be struggling there too. Man, am I done with this game? Are the hitters trying to tell me something about my stuff? Can I get my grandmother "out" right now? These are all great questions for a LOSER to ask. The fact is, I was just tired of not overcoming my battles.
I get back to the hotel and mentioned something to my catcher that had caught me that night. I said something to the effect, "I feel like just going home and finding something else to do." Well, he didn't like it and he told me he wanted to talk to me. I accepted.
We had a 15 minute conversation that brought me back to earth and my senses. He preceded to tell me that since I've been here, with this team, he has grown a lot spiritually. He said if I left it would not be good for him to not have me around to encourage him. WOW!!!!!!!!!! Now I write this not to boast and say,"hey everybody I'm a great spiritual teammate." No!!! I write this to say how much of an influence we have on our teammates!
Talking about the Holy Spirit pricking your heart!!! Ouch!! I had gotten so wrapped up in my self pity and what God owed me that I missed the whole reason why I play this game. For HIM!!! Its so easy to get caught up in numbers, statistics and results and lose focus on our real goal. Satan come to steal, kill and destroy and yes he was destroying my purpose. Don't let him.
Fellas, its not about us at all. Its not about what God can do for us in this game. Its about God giving us the talent and a mission field to spread the Good News.
Praise God for using people around us to minister to us when we are down. May we be that same encouragement to everybody around us!!
Its been a pleasure sharing my heart with you. Until Monday..........
Standridge
9 comments:
Man; I can relate. I played most of my career under the misconception that I was playing to find success in the big leagues. WRONG!!! The only thing that matters is our witness and growth in/for Him. Jason can you think of a better ministry than the one you got now? Being a light to 20 or so lost souls on a daily (personal-lockerroom, etc...) basis, professional athletes are some of the most misguided. Great how the Holy Spirit uses other peeps to tell you what you need to get by. Grind on brother, your efforts will echoe in eternity!
Great job chunky! welcome aboard stud. I loved the whole thing. you're gunna be an awesome addition to this group. PAO? NERTZ?
standy, copy and paste this post on to an email and send it out to all the boys so that everyone who's not on the blogger site can read it too. do the "reply all" to the message from julianel.
Great message brother! I can def. relate to that experience! God has you there for a reason, and HE will not let you down. Be clay not iron, he's molding you brother. Proud of you!
Jason- thanks for sharing your post. I have felt the same things many times and so grateful that God's view of us is not based on our winning/losing percentage on the field or court. I hope that as my season approaches and I have moments like your example in the future that I will see the situation and life from His view. Do your thing and I hope you continue to build with your boy behind the plate.
Jason - excellent truth spoken so genuinely. Praise God for using your boy to reveal your true purpose and mission through the game of baseball. The huge misconception is that we need to be super successful and have a platform and fame to honor our King. That tends to be a selfish deal we try and make with God to get what we want. "You make me successful and I'll give you the glory." Thats not how it works. God needs no platforms and actually can work very well through your failures as opposed to your successes. We play this game for Him and Him alone (col. 3:22) and we are whereever we are for His purpose. As soon as we take the attention of ourselves and put it back on Him then and only then is He glorified no matter the circumstances. Great testimony Jason and I look forward to Mondays now. Awesome. Praise God for His grace and mercy and what an honor it is to be used by Him for His glory! Amen?
I love you guys
- TEvans
Jason,
Great opening post, and thanks for laying it out there. I look forward to many more Monday dimes
To use a baseball expression for all you baseball guys...that's good stuff!! Nice post...
Post a Comment