In honor of the tie-breaker games in Major League
Baseball today, the upcoming MLB playoff series, (and the addition to our InBounds
staff of new intern, Trenton Green, who played travel baseball growing up; this
week’s devotion brought me back to some childhood memories on the “diamond.”
I know I most often write/talk about hoops, reality is
that I spent an equally huge amount of time playing hardball… starting at a very
early age I was able to regularly be taught to execute the fundamentals. One
area I remember very clearly recall is training in the batter’s box…
I was always pretty big for my age and had a little bit of
pop in my bat, but I emphasize a “little bit”! I wasn’t nearly as much of a
power hitter as I thought I was… I confess my youthful irrational views for a
reason… those irrational views caused me to at times forget the fundamentals at
the plate.
I can still hear my coaches’ voices (especially the voice
of my dad…) screaming for me to keep my head down and keep my eye on the ball…
to stop dropping my shoulder and swinging for the fences (for greatness)! The reality
is that I was a pretty good hitter when I stopped looking at where I wanted the
ball to go and instead focused on the ball and just made contact! (Often, home
run hitters are also leaders in strikeouts… because they take their eye off the
ball and look at the fence!)
Over and over I write about things like the Great
Commission that gives us a specific mission to make disciples, to teach, and to
preach… as we go on our journey. (See Mt 28:19-20; Mk 16:15) Then there is 1
Corinthians 15:58 reminding us to stay busy at work… the Greek word ergon… with
the idea of anything we can accomplish by “hand, art, industry, or mind.” (See
BibleStudyTools.com Greek lexicon.)
Philippians 3:14 tells us to “press on toward the goal”…
Most of the time when I here this verse taught the emphasis seems to be on the “goal”
but what if the emphasis should instead be on the “press”ing? That word in the Greek
has the idea of running swiftly… How we run matters!
Even when Jesus is telling us how to serve Him (Mt 25),
He reminds us that is done through “making contact”/serving with others. Jesus
used action words like “gave, invited, clothed, visited, etc.” to describe what
we should focus on. When He says, “You did it”, He uses a word that means you “produced,
constructed, formed, fashioned” in the lives of others. (See the Greek lexicon again...) We serve Him not by looking
up but by looking out…
All of this takes me back to the original thought of
fundamentals… keeping our “eye on the ball.” Whether it be evangelism or discipleship
or service the emphasis is on the process more than the outcome. They are
rooted in focusing on the people more than the results… keeping our heads down
and doing the fundamentals.
We tend to think in terms of results more than the
process. We think in terms of grand numbers as being the measure of success. We
focus on the end more than the process. Let me give you a quick Coach-B-Maxim I typed
out on my phone yesterday:
Focus on making contact and good things (and sometimes
great) will happen…
Focus on making great things happen and you may
completely miss making contact!
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