The Art of Striking Out

During his major league career Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs, but he struck out 1,330 times. Ruth is known as one of the greatest hitters of all time despite having struck out 1,330 times. The “Babe” knew something about baseball that made him one of the best. I think that is what led him to say, “Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.” This is something that coaches and dad’s and mom’s need to teach their sons and daughters when they begin learning how to play baseball or softball. Striking out is a disappointing reality of the game. Everyone will swing and miss that ball three times and then take a seat on the bench. While sitting on that bench the player should grasp something just as important as any of the fielding or batting fundamentals he will ever learn. There is an art to striking out and if learned it will help a player be much better at his game. 

How to strike out is a lesson that all of us need to learn even if we don’t play baseball. You and I are going to strike out in life. We are going to make mistakes. We made mistakes when we were in school. We didn’t make a hundred on every test. We make mistakes raising our children, and we make mistakes in our marriages, at our work, in our relationships, and in our spiritual lives. We have found ourselves sitting on the bench wondering what happened. 

When we are on the bench after striking out we need to remember what Babe Ruth said, “Never let striking out get in the way.” Never sit on that bench feeling sorry for yourself. Don’t get angry and blame someone else for your mistake. Don't sit there whining or think about giving up. Remember you are still in the game. God didn’t make you so that you could  ride the bench all of your life. God is forgiving. He has a great plan for you.  If you are a Christian he wants you to know that you are more than a conqueror. In other words God wants you to know that you are a winner even though you have struck out many, many times. 

I found the plaque you see in the picture below many years ago. Whenever we have moved to a new house I hang these frames featuring some of my favorite baseball cards on my den wall and place the Babe’s wise words above them. These are old baseball cards of players from the 1950’s and 1960’s. Many of these players were very good hitters—Yogi Berra, Ted Williams, Orlando Cepeda, and others that aren’t in the pictur , like Willie Mays and Stan Musial. I have about 75 player cards under this plaque. Every single one of them struck out many times. What do you think they did when they went back to the bench and sat down?

The Beat of the Heart

In his mother’s womb his heart began to beat. At six weeks into his life evidence of that tiny heart was detected, and two weeks later his mother listened to hear that rapid thump, thump, thump as if he were shouting, “Hello mommy, I’m here!” A vast system of blood vessels, arteries, veins, and capillaries had begun to develop in his little body until like a raging river life giving blood flowed it’s journey’s course of an amazing 60,000 miles. 

O Lord how wonderful is this your creation! A masterpiece, one of a kind, your precious work is the life you have made! A life in which is found two hearts, one physical, the other spiritual. One heart will cease to beat and will die, the other can live for eternity. In the redeemed spiritual heart, where Christ lives, the heartbeat of Jesus will be heard as his life giving blood flows freely. The power of his blood makes pure this repentant heart. Through his Savior God created a clean heart and renewed his spirit when it went astray. 

Silently that new life began without notice to fulfill the marvelous plan of the Father. Only God knew the eternal purpose for which that tiny heart, nestled securely in his mother’s womb, was made. A life, this sacred blessing from the Creator, ordained to serve and live to bring glory to his maker must be given every chance to carry out the purpose for which he was created. May we praise God for we were fearfully and wonderfully made. We know full well that your works are wonderful. Psalm 139

Heed the Warning

There were two waiting rooms in my eye doctor’s office.  In both of those rooms there was a TV with a sign that read "Do Not Touch!". I understand that they didn’t want people changing the channels, but why didn’t  they have signs that read "Please Don't Change the Channel"? That Do Not Touch sign just made me want to touch those TVs. I heard other patients say the same thing. It is our nature to want to touch what we are told not to touch.

That has always been man's problem. God put a Do Not Touch, Do Not Taste sign, in a sense, on a tree in the Garden of Eden. God blessed Adam with many trees. "And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Genesis 2:9 The trees in the garden were beautiful, and pleasing to the eye. The fruit was good to eat and very delicious. It wasn't like Adam and Eve were desperate to eat from that one tree. The problem happened when Satan came along and began telling them how much better their lives would be if they did eat the fruit that God had forbidden them to eat. 

We know what happened. Adam and Eve ignored God’s warning and ate the fruit. Because they disobeyed God, man's relationship with Him was greatly damaged. Adam, Eve and every person after them were sentenced to a life of pain, suffering, sorrow and death. Even the perfect world that God had created was cursed and thorns and weeds covered the land. Instead of a life of comfort, man experiences great discomfort. His labor became hard and he worked by the sweat of his brow. The worst punishment—man was condemned to die, all because he did not obey the sign. 

The Bible is composed of 66 books that tell how man got himself in such a perilous state, and then how God’s grace would provide him with a way to be saved. Adam and Eve really blew it, but because of God's loving grace we all have hope. There is another sign that God has shown us. This sign says, “Believe In My son.”  If we heed the message on that Sign we will enjoy life as God intended us to live. That Sign is Jesus. Jesus came to take away our sin and to give us the kind of life God meant for us in the first place. We can choose eternal life or we can ignore God’s promise and suffer the consequence of sin which brings eternal death. Jesus came because we could not keep our hands off of the Do Not Touch sign. It is by the “touch” of our loving Savior that we are free from the penalty of touching that Do Not Touch sign..

By the way, I always touched both of those TVs.