Batter Up!

It's spring or almost spring! That means May flowers, spring showers, and baseball among other signs of spring! That is especially true in Pittsburgh when the Pirates are really on their game!

One essential of playing baseball is the batter.  Without someone up at bat, there isn't much of a game. Actually there is NO game at all!

I'm not planning to play baseball any time soon, but I find myself up at bat all too often!  There are many variations on this theme: there are two kinds of people in this world - the batters/players and the bench warmers!  I don't care who you are or what you do; you are one or the other!

It's the people who aren't afraid to get in the game, to take their turn at bat, to play their position who make a difference in the game of life!

Once a lady in Pittsburgh (native Pittsburgher) said to me, O, I know all about you Southern girls!  You just take to your bed for three days when you get a little headache.  Now, mind you:  She hardly knew me and SHE CERTAINLY DID NOT KNOW ME!!! 

Well, after I picked my jaw up off the floor, I looked her straight in the eye and said, O, you must not know there is more than one kind of Southern gal - There's the Southern Belle and then there's the Steel Magnolia!!!

It is so interesting from a people-observation perspective and also so sad from a Christian world-and-life-view that there are actually Christians who find being a bench sitter good enough, thank you very much!  I don't think so!  The Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 3:17:  ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.  My Jesus and His name deserve MUCH more than warming a bench!  ONLY my best will do, and that's my best in EVERYTHING!

Now, bench warming is much less risky!  Chances are that bench warming will net you FAR less criticism on a grand scale, but it also won't get you to 1st base!  It won't even get you up to bat!

I don't care where you live and walk; it's a choice: Batter Up! or warm the bench!  There isn't much wear and tear to bench warming.  Batting, pitching, catching, running the bases and the field cost: time and energy and can tug on your heart big time! BUT that's where the game of life is played - IN THE GAME - NOT on the bench!  Being a player participating in the game may be messy and challenging, but it's worth it every time!  Especially because that's the ONLY way to do EVERYTHING in the name of the Lord Jesus to hold Him up before the watching world! Just sayin'!

Bombs Bursting in Air!

Unbelievable the depths of the evil in men's hearts and their ability to creatively execute that evil! There's the Gosnell trial in Philadelphia - a cesspool of violence and corruption! There is the Boston Marathon Bomb(s) with all the devastation! There are poison letters sent to at least one congressman and the President! And then there was the infamous April 15th! All that is happening in this one week!

As I drove to work this AM, I was struck with wonder as I passed mile after mile of beautiful flowering trees and gorgeous plantings of daffodils and tulips! My thoughts were that God NEVER intended the world to be anything but right, good and beautiful! Instead it is broken beyond repair and not just in the sensational news of this week! The world is broken all over the place and especially in my own heart!

Isn't it wonderful that God still provides the beauty of spring bursting forth after the cold and snow and bleakness of winter to bathe our eyes and our hearts with a glimpse of the beauty that will someday return like it was in the beginning! 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ... And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then He said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." (Rev. 21:1-5)