Team Players (Friday Devotional)

 

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

- Ephesians 2:19-22

Yesterday, my brother and I began our second season coaching Little League baseball. For more than an hour, we rolled grounders, played catch, and taught proper hitting technique to a group of 6, 7, and 8-year olds. In just a few short weeks, the Trash Pandas will take the field for the first time in a real game.

But for that initial practice, I was struck by the disparity of talent, experience, and attention span among our players. For a few kids, this was their third or fourth baseball season, and practice was just about shaking off rust. For some others, this is the season they graduated from tee ball to coach pitch, and so last night was their first time facing pitching (even if it was from me, kneeling on the grass 5 feet in front of them). And for at least one of our players, this was the first time he’d played baseball outside his backyard.

But despite this gap in experience and skill, everybody belongs on our team. The beautiful thing about Little League is that, whether you’re new to the game or an old pro, all you have to do to join the team is, well, join the team. Everybody grows together and nobody gets left behind.

In that regard, I’m reminded of the church as described in the New Testament. The early church was made up of men and women, fishermen and Pharisees, a few prosperous community leaders and a lot of poor followers. Some had spent three years with Jesus, some had only heard his story, and one was confronted by him on a Damascus road.  But whatever their backgrounds, all professed the same faith, all held tight to the same gospel. In Jesus’ name, they were transformed from a motley crew into a family of faith.

Today, the church has the opportunity to be a countercultural witness to a fragmented, divided society. If obedient to Christ, the church is a body that doesn’t care what value you bring to the organization, because as someone created in the image of God, your worth is inherent. If obedient to Christ, your education, career, and family history are part of your story, but they are not your defining characteristics—your faith in Jesus is. If obedient to Christ, the church welcomes both the well-to-do businessman and the impoverished addict with open arms—because both need Jesus.

In Little League, both the stars and the scrubs get jerseys. Everybody rides the bench at some point, and everybody plays. Nobody gets left behind. In Jesus’ name, may the church dare to embrace an even greater spirit of hospitality than that—may we not only allow anyone on our team, but welcome them into our family.

Spiritual Training (Friday Devotional)

 

Have nothing to do with profane and foolish tales. Train yourself in godliness, for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

- 1 Timothy 4:7-8

On Monday, I awoke at 5:00AM feeling determined. After several weeks doing my homework on the best plan to follow, this was to be the day I started a new diet and workout routine. I knew every exercise I was going to do that morning—how many reps, how many sets, what proper form looked like, everything. I was ready.

I made it all of 10 minutes before realizing I wasn’t as ready as I thought I was, and wasn’t going to be able to finish that morning’s workout. I haven’t yet built up the strength to complete the full circuit I’d planned—indeed, it will probably take weeks of repetition before I’m able to do so. I’d forgotten one of the most basic rules of training: you can’t expect to have it all figured out on day one. That’s what the training is for!

What’s true for physical training is true for spiritual training as well. In 1 Timothy 4:7-8, the apostle Paul compares the two, reminding believers that, just as physical strength is built steadily over time, so is godliness. While salvation can come instantaneously, with the kind of “road to Damascus” moment that Paul himself experienced, sanctification happens more slowly—not in an instant, but day by day.

Believers in Jesus ought to strive to be like our Lord, to “put on the new self” (Ephesians 4:24) that comes with being made new in Christ. But we must also understand that, while inner transformation may be immediate, outward transformation is a process, one the Holy Spirit graciously empowers and enables. So when you stumble—not if, but when—be assured that there is grace and forgiveness for all who seek the Lord. Nobody is a spiritual giant on day one so don’t give up. Keep training!

Difficult Love (Friday Devotional)

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same?

- Matthew 5:46-47

Every now and then, when the sports calendar is in a dry period, an evergreen controversy will consume talk radio: athletes today fraternize too much with their opponents. Following a friendly pregame hug or a lengthy postgame chat between players on opposing sides, sports pundits (often former athletes themselves) will talk about how “back in my day,” rivals hated each other, how icons from Ty Cobb to Michael Jordan refused to so much as speak to the opposition, much less treat them as friends. The implication is clear: you should hold tight to your team, but should be wary—if not outright hostile—towards others.

There’s something very relatable about that instinct. We are always most comfortable around those who are most like us: those who live where we live, go to school where we go, make the kind of money we make, vote like we vote, and believe what we believe. Those are easy friends to make, and you feel an immediate kinship to them because of all your similarities. If all your neighbors were like them, life would be easy.

But Jesus offers a gentle word caution: not all your neighbors are like you. In the kingdom of God, we are called to love not only our friends and family, but even our enemies. The “neighborhood” we are called to love is not a gated community, but an expansive world, made up of both like-minded allies and divergent strangers—and we are called to love each and every one of them in Jesus’s name.

It’s tempting to build a bubble of nice, middle class, Christian believers, and to disregard the rest of the world. But the Lord points us to a bigger project: not simply surrounding ourselves with easy, comfortable friends, but reaching out to lost souls. Sticking with your team may work on the ballfield, but it has a distinct weakness in the real world: your roster never grows.

Remind Me (Friday Devotional)

 

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

- Deuteronomy 6:6-9

By the time you’re reading this, my family and I will have begun our trip to America’s Rust Belt, where we plan to visit three major league ballparks, a national park, and Niagara Falls—not to mention eating some delicious food. But before we do any of that, there’s one little obstacle we’ll have to navigate: airport security.

Since 2001, those who fly regularly have gotten accustomed to the various rules: shoes off, empty your pockets, laptops and electronic devices in their own bins, etc. It’s been more than 20 years of this rigmarole; you’d think we’d all have it down by now. But inevitably, the line gets slowed down by the man who didn’t remember his cell phone was in his pocket or the woman who thought her 24 oz. bottle of shampoo would sneak past the X-ray. That’s why TSA employees, with understandable weariness, have to give the same instructions 100 times during their daily shift—because while we think we know what to do, we actually need to be reminded what’s expected of us.

In the days of Moses, God wanted to be sure his people remembered the laws he was giving them—so not only did he give them commands, he told them how important it was to repeat those commands amongst themselves. Teach them to your children, talk about them around the dinner table, give yourselves visible reminders on your body and in your home—these were all things the Lord advised his people to do.

For God’s people today, we continue to need such reminders. It’s easy to think after a while that you’ve absorbed everything already, that following God is second nature by now. But the truth is that, without daily discipleship, you’ll fall into bad habits and forget what Jesus has taught you. Don’t let your pride trick you into thinking that you have nothing more to learn from God, or that what you have learned is set in concrete. Read your Bible. Pray regularly. Worship and serve alongside fellow believers. These are all ways that God gives you little reminders of what the gospel’s all about.

And rest assured, we all need reminders. Take it from this world traveler, life goes a lot more smoothly when you listen—yes, even when you know the words by heart—to the commands you swore you’d never forget.