Notes from the Trail

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Not being a baseball guru, having two kids playing the sport this summer is somewhat of an irony. I sit with a couple of families on a regular basis right up next to the chainlink backstop sniffing St. Augustine. I have created my own puddle of slobbery sunflower seeds on more than one occasion. I nod my head and commiserate with one of the other dads about strategies, coach mistakes, player goofs and so forth like I know what I’m talking about. I’m pretty sure Gene and everyone else around me knows I’m a baseball idiot.

Questions like “Sooooo… what’s a balk?” are a good clue. It’s been explained to me about 3 times this season so far, and I still don’t get it, nor understand why it’s even a rule.

The other night, after the third strike, the crowd suddenly went wild, screaming, “Run! Run!” I joined in, not knowing what the heck I was screaming for. The boy had struck out. Plain and simple. But if they wanted to yell at him to run off the field, that sounded fun to me. However, the deal was that the catcher had dropped the pitch. Apparently somewhere in the annals of baseball someone said, “Hey, this sport is so slow and nap-oriented that we need to throw in a few crazy rules just to keep people awake, so let’s say that if the catcher drops the pitch on the third strike, the batter can run.” Nevermind that it’s like getting the dry heaves. You normally get all worked up over nothing. You get all excited and start screaming, “Run! Run!,” but the odds of the runner beating the throw to first are heavily against him. Yet, I’ve seen it happen, so I now scream with the best of them.

However, I was “thrown” this past week when the coach yelled, “Stand up! Stand up!” at the boy running from first to second. What in the world? I mean, the boy was in a full, head-long sprint. How could he not be standing up? Of course, I turned to Gene and asked one of my typical baseball-is-beyond-me-questions. 

I learned that what the coach was trying to communicate to the runner is that he needed to be prepared to round second in preparation for advancing to third, rather than sliding into second and missing that opportunity. Usually, it means that the ball is nowhere near second, and that the runner has a good chance of moving on.

“Ooooooooh,” was my response, if I remember correctly.

The more I’ve thought about it, the more I see a similarity in how Christians live their lives. Too many of us are sliding into second base, simply hoping to be “safe.” We are totally unaware of what’s happening in the larger game. We’re in desperate need to hear from the Coach. Most of us would be surprised to hear Him shouting, “Stand up! Stand up!” This game is not about playing it safe. It’s about advancing toward home. When we stop running, we miss out on the opportunities that God gives for us to move forward in life.

I have overused the story I heard about the little boy who fell out of bed in the middle of the night. After settling him down, his father asked him what happened. “I guess I stay too close to where I got in,” he replied.

That’s an apt description for many Christians. After making the decision to accept Christ, they forget they’re also called to follow Him. They stay too close to where they got in and simply never grow beyond their point of initial calling. 

What about you? Are you pursuing God daily? Are you seeking His will to be done in your community, your work, your home and your personal life? In this day and age, it’s no time to only seek to be safe. It’s time to put some runs on the board.

Stand up!

“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” (Ephesians 6.13)

“Ours is a harder task than that which our fathers faced. Their conveniences and appliances were fewer, but they were not caught and often submerged in the rush of affairs as we are. We have many labor-saving and time-saving devices, but somehow we find it difficult to save time enough… for private meditation and prayer… While we make our homes more beautiful externally than our fathers’ with their limited means were ever able to do, can we make them also the abode of virtue, honor and love…?”

The quote haunted me for several minutes after I read it in my Life Principles for Following Christ Bible study. It wasn’t because of its uncanny accuracy and penetrating analysis (we just had our house painted, thanks to George W. Bush, thus making our home more “beautiful externally”). It was because it was written in an article in the Christian Observer… dated March 22, 1905.

It’s tempting to think that our generation has it worse than others, but it’s really all relative. Sure, the march of progress seems recently to have been led by greyhounds, but in actuality, it’s not easy for anyone of any era to change. 

Change is what is required of every person who would follow Jesus. I’ve said it a hundred times after reading it in Henry Blackaby’s study Experiencing God: “You can’t stay where you are and go with God.” Whether 1905 or a century later, true intimacy with God requires each of us to change our lifestyle. 

If we could think of our day as a Thanksgiving turkey. There are certain parts of it that are tasty and edible, while other parts are basically “throwaway.” We all have to carve out of our lives what is good and useful. Times when we’re asleep are basically “throwaway.” We do nothing during those times other than recoup and be restored for another day. Out of the 12-18 hours that we’re awake, we must realize that all the iPhones, PDAs, email, fax machines, computers, etc. still can’t impact our character. 

We must do that by diligent attention to our souls. It’s left to us to present ourselves before a loving God for transformation and service each day. What can we do to escape what one writer referred to as the “tyranny of the urgent” and create moments of majestic impact for our souls? The Bible records Jesus’ habit of drawing away to solitary places to pray - it seems daily. In moments of monumental import, He seemed to stay up all night praying (before choosing the 12, in Gethsemane, etc.).

If our Lord and Example modeled such moments of prayer, we should certainly devote and carve out for ourselves times of submission, confession, reading, and prayer each day. Our souls thirst for Him. We don’t need more time-saving gadgets but more transforming godliness.

In order to draw nearer to Him and quench your thirst, I’d recommend:

• A set time each day - make a commitment to yourself now. Write it down. Mark it on your calendar. Set an alarm on your cell phone (one of those “conveniences”) to remind you.
• Create a “solitary place.” It’s a place where your Bible is in easy reach as well as a journal or notepad for thoughts. It’s a place, and rapidly it will become a palace where you meet with the King of kings. Regularity will make this place literally resonate with the presence of the Lord for you.
• Follow a plan. Determine ahead of time what you will read - a scripture reading plan or a guided Bible study - would be best for beginners. You can find reading plans all over the internet. I’d recommend Blackaby’s Experiencing God for a guided study.
• Stick with it. Don’t give up if you miss a day here or there. Stay at it.
• Talk to others about what you’re doing. This will bring encouragement and added accountability. You’ll be surprised that your own example might inspire others who have been procrastinating about their soul health as well.

Way back in ‘06, I wrote about my consideration of the Zune as a possible iPod-breaker. However, after doing research then, I decided not to plunk down any cash on the Doomed-Zune. I have a few people who follow this blog who sometimes question my sources and predictions, but to date, I have not had to make any embarrassing retractions. 

This recent article seems to confirm what I had written back then. I offer it only to help you save some dollars if you were considering a Microsoft Zune. Most of you will wonder what in the world it is, I suspect.

The article states:

US video game retailer GameStop has thus applied yet another slap across the face of Microsoft’s attempt to produce an ‘iPod-killer’. Zune has sold two million units since launch, proving itself an unwanted minnow in the sea ofApple competitors.

I had lunch Wednesday with a former student from my campus ministry days - Davy Nugent from Dewitt. He’s been serving in the Navy for the past five years, having traveled the world while serving my family and our country. I’m grateful. Truly.

For those of you who know Davy, he is the same fun-loving, animated Davy I remembered. While he was only at UAM for a year, he and his Dewitt friends made a lasting contribution to our campus ministry through their enthusiasm and participation. I laughed out loud as Davy described being on ABC News with his arm around Diane Sawyer who was in southeast Asia covering the tsunami relief effort, which the Navy was a part of.

The strange and surreal thing about lunch today is that the current campus minister, Tracy Reed, was there with his wife Candy. Tracy was my assistant the semester before Davy arrived at school. Also there was Jeremy Woodall who was in junior high at the time, I guess but is now Tracy’s assistant at the BCM. Tracy and Candy are some of our best friends, and we are so blessed to have them ministering on the UAM campus now.

As we talked about memories and current happenings, I kept getting confused about what students Davy would know and which ones he wouldn’t. He asked about Jill Parrack, and he remembered Jody Smotherman, as well as Ryan Morgan, but he didn’t remember others that I mentioned - mainly because they came after he had left.

After more than 20 years in ministry, eight of them at UAM, I get my ministry generations mixed up. That’s an especially significant factor for guys who do youth and college ministry, as students come and go so much. It’s sometimes hard to remember who “fits” where in the generations of students that we’ve had the privilege and blessing of ministering alongside.

As students graduate, transfer and move on, you don’t realize the significance of their dispersion until much later. However, today as I listened to Davey’s stories and realized the impact he’s been making on the world and his continued love for Christ, I was humbled to have been allowed to serve him during his freshman year at college.

These days, more often than not, the college students I worked with are married and most even have children. They’re serving all over the world, in churches, in the armed forces, in business and government. If you haven’t stopped to pray for youth and collegiate ministry today, I encourage you to do so. They are strategic opportunities to encourage, inspire, and set young people on a life direction that is beneficial and glorifying to God.

Suggested link: Arkansas College Ministries