Go Ballgame!

My eldest daughter, now 21 beautiful years old, was a mere 2 (also beautiful) years old when she attended her first professional baseball game. We attended as a part of a church outing, and several of us had seats together high up in the nosebleed section of the ballpark where the Cleveland Indians played. It would be fair to say that Darcie enjoyed herself immensely. It would not be accurate to say she enjoyed the game itself.

She spent most of her time with her back turned to the actual game, keeping close watch over the collection of popcorn, cotton candy, and assorted other game souvenirs she had had collected from her parents and most of the church members who were there. Every now and then something exciting would happen in the game, and the crowd would cheer, sometimes standing if the action was especially compelling—a home run or an extraordinary defensive play, for example. When this happened, Darcie would turn around and wave her little arms and join in the cheering.

”Go ballgame!” She would yell out, whereupon, duty done, she would return to her cache of goodies on the seat behind her. We, of course, found this behavior highly entertaining and enjoyed her antics almost as much as the game itself. I’m happy to report that in the intervening years since that inaugural experience, Darcie has been to many more games and has a much more developed knowledge of what a baseball game is all about.

I used to look back on that experience with a lot of humor and would sometimes tease Darcie about it, but then the thought occurred to me that her first baseball game went just about the way our church and worship experiences often go. Think about it. If asked, Darcie could truthfully say she had been at that game.. She responded at the appropriate times, and joined in to the best of her ability when the congregation, er, I mean the crowd reacted to the action on the field. But it would also be absolutely accurate to say that she was not connected in any meaningful way with what was happening the field that day. It did not impact her life at all.

How about us? How often do we attend church, standing up and kneeling down as appropriate, mouthing the appropriate words at the appropriate times, and maintaining a carefully configured outward appearance designed to allow us to get in and out with as little meaningful interaction with the people and the happenings in the service as possible? In Darcie’s case, she didn’t even realize she was missing anything, and no one would expect anything more from a little girl at her first game. But we know when we are going through the motions, and we know something is missing, and if we’re honest, we’d really like something more.

Be of good cheer, God wants the same thing for you. In fact, it’s YOU he wants. This is because he has something for you, and what he has is nothing less than the life of your dreams, full and dynamic and meaningful. Neither church, nor worship, nor the Christian experience, must be boring and insipid and irrelevant. The idea that it is, is a lie (just like the lie that baseball is boring, but that’s another conversation).

Just for today, why not send up a little prayer asking God to touch your life and inject some little taste of the joy he has prepared for you. Then be on the lookout, and see what happens. “I have come that [you] may have life, and a more abundant life at that“ (John 10:10)! Jesus said that. Take him up on the offer. That’s what I’m going to do.