Return of the Eagles

Watching a Little League game out of Texas on ESPN this Sunday afternoon, I heard a word I needed to hear. You know how it is; sometimes our word comes from a verse God gives us, sometimes it can come from something the preacher says.

Other times it comes from something a Little League coach says to his 12-year-old pitcher who he is taking out of the game after giving up seven runs in an important game. As 12-year-old boys are apt to do when they have a bad game at that age, he started to cry.

But his coach, who immediately earned my respect, said, “Hey, did you honor God today? Did you honor your family? Did you honor your team?”  To which the young man shook his head yes. The coach continued, “Then keep your head up. You did good. Go play right field.”

The standard by which we measure a day or a life, is whether we did our best to honor God.

This is coming from someone who, as a young man, would come home punching walls when I had a bad basketball practice. A bad practice…

And I have had occasions when I would drive home after church really upset instead of joyful, having prayed with say, 5 people to accept Christ, feeling like I could have reached several more that morning if I had listened better to the LORD.

“Hey, did you honor God today? Did you honor your family? Did you honor your team? Then go play right field.”

We live in America. “Land of the Driven to do it a little better today than you did yesterday.” You must be able to quantify what you do. Show me the numbers! Where is the graph to prove that what you did THIS quarter is better than what you did the same quarter LAST YEAR?

And we are not speaking in business terminology, we are talking about what is expected in much of the CHURCH TODAY! "Is your church GROWING? How many got saved THIS MONTH? How many were BAPTIZED? Show me the NUMBERS! Show me the MONEY!"

What is this, a game show???

How about I just leave you with this instead?

Then Esau said, “Let us be on our way; I’ll accompany you.” But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are tender and that I must care for the ewes and cows that are nursing their young. If they are driven hard just one day, all the animals will die. So let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I move along slowly at the pace of the flocks and herds before me and the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.” (Genesis 33:12-14)

Doesn’t matter so much the context of this story. What matters is that Jacob knew a lot about taking care of those he was responsible for. His goal was not speed, his goal was to get there. He had learned to be a shepherd. He had learned to be a pastor.

He was going to do what was best for those under his care and not be concerned with how it looked to anyone else.

And at the end of the day, Jacob would have honored God.

Even if he gave up 7 runs.