It’s been raining a lot here in the Arizona desert. I mean A LOT! I had been enjoying it - up until this week.
Yesterday the rain ruined my plans to take my family to a Spring Training baseball game that a generous member of LW had given me really good tickets for. Rats! And this morning I find out that practice for my son’s junior high school baseball team is wiped out due to flooding on the field. Darn! I’m the assistant coach, something I enjoy doing very much. Not sure who is more bummed about this afternoon’s practice, my son or me!
Coaching youth baseball is something I’ve done since T-ball days for David. It gives us more time together, which is awesome, and it allows us to share our love of sports. But another reason I spend so much time coaching is that it allows me into the lives of some of David’s friends and classmates. It is one of the few venues where I’m not known as Pastor Dave. And for some, Coach Dave is a moniker that carries less baggage and feels more approachable.
I am not a former big leaguer or anything. I am not hoping for a second career as a professional baseball manager. I’m just a volunteer assistant coach at a small charter school. I’m not delusional enough to think there are scouts in the stands at our games, checking out my coaching ability. Still, I do know a little something about the great game of baseball, and just as importantly for a youth coach, I know how to communicate its sometimes complicated nuances to boys and young men. I can help them become better players. But that’s not really why I coach.
I coach because I believe sports, especially team sports, gives me the opportunity to help young men learn lessons that help them become better people. Baseball teaches diligence, patience, perseverance, courage, team play, sportsmanship, effort, and so many other valuable character traits.
I also coach because, while I am not by any means trying to covertly proselytize my players or anything like that at all, I do realize that for some of them, and their parents, and maybe even the other team, the umpires - who knows who all - I may be the only pastor they get to know. For some, I’m one of few Christians they interact with on a regular basis. Coaching allows me to be for them a face of Christ. Even if that face is behind sporty sunglasses and a Mesa Prep cap!
Now if it would only stop raining…
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I love March in Arizona for lots of reasons – the perfect weather, the wildflowers, the green of the desert, the bright blue of the spring skies. And one of the best parts about March for me is Spring Training baseball.
Now I confess that I am a hardcore baseball junkie. I love the game. I like to play (well, softball these days), and I love to coach, which I still get to do with my 14-year-old, but he almost knows more about the game than I do and will, before long. I love watching baseball played on its highest level, and I am a rabid fan of my favorite team (go Cards!). But I like watching anyone play – little leaguers and beer leaguers and minor leaguers. I’ll take in a local youth game or a local college game. If you haven’t gone to a game at ASU, you should, especially if you have youngsters who like baseball – general admission is only $7 and kids can sit on the lawn down the first base line so close to the action they’ll hear the first base coach whisper instructions to his base runners!
But I enjoy, as much as any game, the early days of Spring Training, when players are back together running drills, practicing the basics, taking batting practice and all the rest. I’m always impressed with the coordinated beauty of a team taking infield, or the skill of a veteran coach hitting fungoes, or the ease with which pitchers play long toss. Baseball is a hard game, and it takes lots of practice. Watching the effort of Spring Training helps me appreciate the skills on display in the regular season.
March is also the season of Lent in the church. It is our time to practice the disciplines of our faith, like prayer and Bible study and worship on Sunday and Wednesday. Some find practicing other Lenten disciplines like fasting or silence or special daily devotions for the season helpful as well. Like Spring Training drills, maybe the concept of Christian disciplines isn’t very flashy. But in the practice of our faith we find, not perfection, but the pursuit of it. And in that, there is great beauty.
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Blog 5 - February 22, 2010 |
I’ve been watching the Winter Olympics from Vancouver (after work mostly, “Live via tape delay”) and overall I’ve enjoyed them. But one late night, watching the exciting finish of women’s preliminary round ice hockey on MSNBC (I think it was Bulgaria vs. Belarus – who knew how thrilling that could be?) I had a random thought. What could the Church learn from the Winter Olympics? Here are some ideas:
- First, Canadians are the nicest people in the world. Every congregation should have a Canadian chair its Evangelism Committee.
- If Canadians lead the Evangelism team, snowboarders should be the heads of Fellowship. They always look like they’re having fun. Even when they don’t win. Even when they wipe out. “It’s all good, dude!” I’ve actually heard commentators (mostly old guys who have been a part of loads of Olympic broadcasts, so they know how things are supposed to be done) complain that the snowboarders seem more intent on enjoying themselves than on winning. Imagine that! Young people thinking that the process is more important than the outcome and refusing to take something that’s supposed to be enjoyable – sports – and turning it into a grim pursuit of fame and fortune. What if we applied that thinking to Fellowship events? Or, say, worship?
- Even though the TV broadcasts focus only on the top contenders, there are a lot of competitors who are at the Games for reasons other than getting a gold medal. Like being part of a community and striving to offer one’s best and enjoying the process. Communities of faith are supposed to be just that - communities. Not places where people feel they are constantly being judged and compared with the superstars.
- Some sports are just – I’m sorry – boring to watch. Like biathlon. Here’s the formula. Take two already excruciatingly dull spectator events (cross-country skiing and target shooting) and put them together. You know what you get? Not double the boring factor. More like four times the ho-hum. I think it works exponentially or something. Cross country skiing looks really fun to do. But not to watch other people do. Same with shooting. But sometimes we do the same thing in the Church. We take boring – a classroom setting – and mix in painful – memory work – and we call it Confirmation. And then we wonder why kids can’t wait to “graduate” and get their “get out of church free” card, I mean Confirmation Certificate. I can’t bear to watch that, either.
- Things don’t always work out as planned. There is a lot of chaos and randomness to deal with in life, and in the Olympics. Short track speed skating is the best example of this. Skating at super high speed around an iced oval about the size of your standard backyard pool leads to some slipping and bumping and pushing and falling. The favorites don’t always win. America’s best, Apolo Anton Ohno (side note – candidate for best athlete name ever!) displays a remarkable mix of determination and determinism. He tries his best, but he understands that sometimes things just happen and you’re better off accepting and dealing with that than whining.
- The average church attendee does not really think they could be an Olympic athlete. Most of us would never, ever even attempt ski jumping or aerials or the skeleton (which is basically riding your typical Flexible Flyer down an icy Hot Wheels-style track at 90 miles an hour, face first – cause feet first is for sissies!). Except curling. We all think we could curl. At least the broom part. I haven’t figured out how to apply this as a metaphor for faith yet. Let me know if you do. Or just want to join me in trying our hands at curling.
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Blog 4 - February 15, 2010 |
So I finally got a new phone the other day, my first Blackberry. My main motivation was to be more connected. My Blackberry allows me to not only make calls, but also to text and to check emails as well as connect to the internet. Well, OK, it also has MP3 player, a GPS system, and plays some really cool games. But, as I said, that’s not why I got the phone (well, not the main reason!).
Staying connected with people is important, and a smart phone is one way to do that. But staying connected with God is even smarter – yet sometimes it feels more difficult. My phone has got me thinking – how accessible am I to God? How connected am I?
I’m not the sit still type. I’ve been accused of being a little spiritually ADD. I’m more comfortable checking in with God often, if in short spurts, than setting aside a long stretch of time for prayer. It’s not like my communications with God are the prayer equivalent of texting – lol! But I’m more likely to have whatever it is I am doing spur me to mention something to the Lord right then and there that I am to wait until the end of the day for one long summary conversation.
For those with whom I communicate most often, I have set a personal ringtone on my Blackberry to let me know they’re calling or have just sent me a message. I hope I’m as attuned to God. I desire to be so well connected with the Spirit that I truly am aware of when God is trying to communicate with me.
I love my new phone. Call or message me sometime so we can stay connected, too.
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Blog 3 - February 8, 2010 Super Bowl Sunday |
Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. Like millions of Americans, I watched the big game. It’s a huge deal - an unofficial national holiday. But Super Bowl Sunday is about more than football. It’s about gathering with family and friends. It’s about food and fun. It’s about the halftime show (but if Pete Townshend would have had a wardrobe malfunction, it would have ruined my second half snacking!). And it’s about watching the ads – something that has become almost as big as watching the game.
Of course last year when the Arizona Cardinals played I was really into the game. Oh, so close! This was another good year for the Big Red, but the future is unclear with the retirement of quarterback Kurt Warner. Kurt is known for his story (grocery bagger becomes NFL MVP), for his success on the field (next stop, Canton and the Football Hall of Fame) and also for his genuine Christian witness.
I had the opportunity to hear Kurt speak at an event on Thursday. His address was at a business seminar, not a church function. He shared some lessons from his own success story, and he was undeniably inspiring. But he did not pass on the chance to share his Christian testimony in a way that was clear, humble and grace-filled.
Few other Christian athletes – young Tim Tebow just graduated from the University of Florida comes to mind – have witnessed to their faith in Christ in such a warm and winsome way. Frankly, I think more damage than good has been done by the “I just want to thank the big man upstairs for my amazing talent/this great victory/being our biggest fan” talk that we sometimes have to endure from pro athletes. I mean, come on, aren’t players on both sides praying for a win? Do we really think God cares which group of insanely over-compensated men playing boys’ games comes out on top?
But when somebody like Kurt Warner uses the platform of sports not to spout or to brag or to bible-thump, but to sincerely share the place spirituality has in their lives, and what a journey with Jesus has meant to them, then I’m sure God is pleased.
I’m probably never going to be a guest speaker at a business event with 20,000 people in attendance. And I have finally come to grips with the fact that my boyhood dream of being a professional baseball player is not going to come true (ah, the sad reality!). But, just like you, I am sometimes given opportunities to share my faith all the time with a few folks, or maybe with just one person at a time. Sometimes I take advantage of the opportunity. Sometimes I don’t, for lots of (ultimately lame) reasons.
I understand that living our faith in word and deed is most often done in quiet, unnoticed ways. I understand sharing a loving word with someone doesn’t often draw the attention of TV cameras. I get it – being an ordinary Christian who sometimes gets the extraordinary blessing of being used by God to spread the good news, well, it’s not like winning a Super Bowl or something.
It’s a lot more important than that.
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