May 27, 2019 - Remember the Player, Not the Play

As I pulled up ESPN.com today I saw a headline about the passing of baseball player Bill Buckner…


Buckner was a first baseman for the Boston Red Sox that had an incredible career; it was a great read to see what his teammates had to say about him… He was known for his great work ethic… his fierce competitiveness… his phenomenal skill set (even winning a batting title one year.) This guy was quite a player before his knees started failing him, which leads to the headline that caught my eye…


“Remember the late Bill Buckner for the ballplayer, not for the play”


Most baseball fans remember him more for a ball going through his legs in game 6 of the 1986 World Series; considered to be one of the all-time low-lights of major sports history. Buckner is remembered for an error… not taking into account his bad knees he was playing on… and not taking into account his phenomenal career around that error.


I could go on talking about the greatness of Buckner’s career/abilities, but instead want to simply use this point to encourage each of us to not be defined by individual plays but by consistent “careers.”


King David made some errors, yet was called “a man after God’s own heart.” And of course we could make a long list of others in the Bible that screwed up, only to recover and honor the Lord.


Bottom line this week: Not everything that describes me defines me!


We tend to define people by individual issues they are dealing with… forgetting a simple truth I recently heard a speaker make… he basically said that we are all broken and shouldn’t be defined by that, but instead by the incredible truth that Christ has covered our brokenness.


Give folks a break when they “commit an error”… don’t discount their whole lives… God’s not through with them… why should you be?


Give yourself a break if you have “committed an error”… don’t let it define you… there’s still a lot of “game left to play”!


When our “careers” are over, will folks define us by our mistakes or by our faithfulness? (Thinking of an old Steve Greene song that said, “may all who come behind us find us faithful.”) Will people remember the “player” or the “play”?


Proverbs 20:6 Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man?