Last night, I was sitting behind a glowing computer screen, trying to find some inspiration to write today’s devotional.  The first game of the World Series was playing on the TV in the background, and that really didn’t help me much with my concentration.

Most weeks, I try to find some linkage between the workout and the devotional.  So this week, my mind drifted back and forth between “pumpkins” and “baseball”.

“What’s the connection”, I kept asking myself.

Well…there really isn’t a connection, but I do love the game of baseball.  SO….here goes…..!

One of my favorite movies from the late 1980’s was the Kevin Costner film, “Field of Dreams”.  We all know the plot….an Iowa farmer, Ray Kinsella, puts his family’s livelihood at risk all because he heard a mysterious voice that said “Ray….if you build it, he will come….“.  Ray mows down his cornfield, much to the ridicule of others in the town, and pursues the dream of building a baseball field in the middle of the cornfield….in the middle of Iowa!

After much doubt, the story wraps up in a nice, beautiful bow.  Ray builds the field and the “he” does come back.

Side note…..the “build it” quote from the movie is commonly mistaken as “if you build it, THEY will come….“.  But, if you dig into the movie’s plot, you’ll immediately remember that the voice talking to Ray is specifically saying…”He will come“.

So who is the “He” in the movie?  The story’s plot has a formerly banned professional baseball player, Shoeless Joe Jackson, as the “He”.  Ray is a big fan of Shoeless Joe and connects the dots to surmise that he’s supposed to build this baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield so Joe can come back and play another game of baseball. You see, the story is about “redemption”.

And redemption comes in two situations in that Iowa cornfield.

First, indeed redemption comes to Shoeless Joe Jackson.  Joe was a star outfielder with the Chicago White Sox, playing in the World Series of 1919 against the Cincinnati Reds.  The White Sox lost the series and later eight players were accused of intentionally throwing the game.  Of those eight players, one was Shoeless Joe.  Players were accused of accepting bribes from gamblers.  Upon the convening of a grand jury, Shoeless Joe confesses that he has accepted money as part of an effort to throw the series.  He later recanted his confession, but it was too late.  Joe was banned for life from the game of baseball.  Upon his death at age 64, the other seven players said Joe was never involved in the scandal and later still evidence has surfaced that further casts doubt on his involvement.  Joe was the first of the eight players to pass away.

When Ray builds his baseball field and Joe comes “back” to play, he is offering redemption to Shoeless Joe for the scandal that had plagued him into his death.

Next, Ray likewise receives redemption but in a completely different form.  You see, Ray has had a horrible relationship with his own father, who had since passed away.  The building of the baseball field creates a simple way, through playing catch with his dad, that Ray is able to put their relationship at peace after a lifetime of conflict.  Ray’s dad appears along with the other dead baseball players who’ve come to play ball.  At one point, Ray’s dad says to him, “Is this Heaven…”, to which Ray responds…”No, this is Iowa…”.  And as his dad starts to walk away back into the cornfield, Ray says to him, “Dad, would you like to play catch” and his Dad responds, “Yes, I’d like that very much.”

Sports has a way of cleansing our souls, both physically and metaphorically speaking.  Perhaps, however, baseball is the most appropriate game to demonstrate the power of redemption.  I can think of no other games where individuals can play and talk all at the same time.  Simply put, the act of “playing catch” serves as the example of the cleansing of our guilt for whatever the reason.  Biblically speaking, Romans 3:23 reminds us that “we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God“.  Redemption frees us from our guilt, something we all need regardless of the diversity of our situations.

With the 2016 World Series games officially upon us, I encourage you to see the games as a reminder to seek your own redemption for what might be laying heavily on your mind.  Cheer for the Cubbies, too, but remember the importance of redemption.

Peace!

True story.  Last weekend, I was sitting in my adult Sunday school class around 10 am.  Our preacher….let’s call him “Bob” to protect his real identity….so Reverend Bob has us open our Bibles to the gospel of John, specifically chapter 4, verses 1 through 30.  This one is commonly referred to as the story of the “Woman at the Well”.

Bob launched right into the scripture:

“Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

Now he had to go through Samaria…..”

“Wait….stop right there”, shouted Reverend Bob.  “Now here’s a bit of Bible controversy.  Did Jesus really ‘have’ to go through Samaria…..?”

We scratched our heads a little bit while our teacher explained that there were such prejudices during that time between the Jews and the Samaritans, that most Jewish travelers would bypass going through Samaria.  Instead of taking that direct route, due north, between Judea and Galilee (approximately 70 miles), they would instead travel a hot desert road, avoiding Samaria but nearly doubling the distance.  The hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans dated back several hundred years.  They avoided one another completely.

So, to Reverend Bob’s point, there was no reason to say that Jesus HAD to go due north and travel through Samaria to get back to Galilee.

But Jesus does anyway.  He’s exhausted by the time he gets to Samaria and he stops to rest at the well.

Here’s where the story gets interesting.  

A Samaritan woman comes to the same well to draw water into her jar.  Jesus says to her, “Give me a drink….”.

The woman is shocked.  Knowing he is Jewish, she responds saying “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”

Jesus responds, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

What is this “living water” that Jesus is speaking about?  Sounds like some sort of magical drink, maybe?

Then Jesus begins to tell the woman much of her history; many of the things she hides from others including the fact that she’s had five husbands and that the man she’s staying with now is indeed not her husband.

Talk about some “street cred…”.  The woman had to be asking herself, “This Jewish man is not supposed to know anything about me, much less even talk to me, a Samaritan.  How is that he knows these things….?”

If you read the remainder of this chapter in John, you’ll see how the woman is changed by what Jesus is saying to her.  She immediately leaves her jar at the well, and runs back to the village to evangelize all that she has heard and seen that day.

Notice the symbolism of her leaving behind the water jar.  That jar is probably one of her most prized possessions; something that she does to bring refreshment to the villagers.  She uses it to bring water from the well.  But just as Jesus tells her to take the “living water” that he can provide, she leaves behind the physical water, to preach to the others about the “living water” that Jesus speaks about.  Arguably, the woman at the well is not only a story of change, but also reveals to us the first preacher in the Bible.

Lastly, just as the woman leaves behind her prized possession, we too must shed ourselves of some of our world possessions, in order to see what Jesus is telling us to do.

So, going back to Reverend Bob, who said that perhaps the notion that Jesus HAD to go through Samaria is incorrect.  Geographically, Jesus could have maintained the status-quo and taken the much more desired yet longer route.  Then again, perhaps Jesus “HAD” to go through Samaria, not only to demonstrate putting prejudices aside, but to also demonstrate compassion, healing, and the merits of obedience to God.

Drink it up….!

Today’s running workout was around the theme of “fire”.

It’s been nearly a month since my wife and I were awaken in the middle of the night.  The cell phone next to her side of the bed rang and startled both of us.  I was barely awake, but I remember her turning to me saying, “The Brasser’s house is on fire….“.  Without thinking, I reached across the floor in the darkness and found my running shoes.  Within seconds, I had the shoes on and was out the door.

I’ve been to many a bonfire in my life.  Mostly, they were related to sporting events like Army – Navy spirit week at West Point when I was a cadet.  Or, more recently, while I was camping with my two boys at the annual Pack 55 Cub Scout “Cuboree”.  But I promise you that nothing will prepare you when you see something like your neighbor’s home a towering glow of burning timbers.  Luckily, our dear friends, Megan and Richard Brasser, along with their four children, escaped in the nick of time.  They were standing across the street when I arrived, all their eyes fixated on the burning home.  At one point, I counted ten fire trucks parked along the street, working on the blaze that would take about 30 minutes to extinguish.

I think it was sometime around 3:30 in the morning, when everything had died down, and most of the neighbors had gone back to their homes.  Richard, Megan and I stood in the middle of the street, watching the fire fighters pull piles of smoldering debris from the home.  The children had gone to my in-laws house just around the corner.  I can only imagine what they were thinking.  Richard turned to me at one point and said, “You know….you always imagine if you’re caught in a house fire that you’ll be able to grab this or that.  We literally grabbed the kids and headed out the door.”  The fire inspectors would later tell us that had the Brassers hesitated another 3 minutes or so, they might have been trapped inside.

My heart stops when I think about that part…..

Fire.  It destroys.  It brings chaos.  And many times, it kills.  The Bible is full of stories about fire.  John the Baptist tells of someone greater than him who will come to baptize those with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  In Exodus, the voice of God can be heard from within the flames of a burning bush.  The book of Acts, of course, talks about tongues of fire.  And in Hebrews, we are told of our God as a “consuming fire”.

Probably, most of us think about fire in the Bible as the alternative to Heaven….Hell, which is described as a place where the fire is never quenched.

Simply said, many of you have a negative perception of fire.  On the flip-side, fire can purify.  Fire can sterilize.  Fire provides warmth in the cold and provides light in the darkness.

Fire took away our friends’ home that terrible evening.  And while this tragedy will stay with many of us for a very long time, the fire brought out some goodness as I’ve never seen.  Almost immediately, the next day, piles of clothing, gift cards, and food began to accumulate on my in-laws front porch for the Brasser family.  Sign up lists were constructed to provide meals for the family.  A car was loaned.  Youth sports teams began fund-raisers.  And distractions were slowly removed to allow Megan and Richard to focus on the daunting tasks of insurance claims, investigations, and moving on with their lives.

Fire brought us together that night.  Fire has reminded us to be thankful.  Fire made us caring neighbors.  Fire warmed our hearts and sterilized our souls.

One afternoon, just a couple days after the fire, we were sitting on my in-laws front porch talking with the Brassers about what they were able to salvage from the ashes.  Megan described going into one of the rooms that was covered with charred walls and soot.  Somehow, in the midst of the black and grey, Megan discovered a white linen shirt or perhaps one their youngest child’s dresses, hanging untouched from the fire.  She told us how the purity of that linen stood out among the charred remains of the rest of the room.  Why that cloth was left unscathed we may never know.  Megan described the image as seeing an “angel” in the midst of the ashes.

Maybe the fire fighters caught that room at just the right moment and the white linen was saved.  Or, perhaps, there really was an angel that night….and the purity of the linen was a reminder left behind to help us all through the days ahead.

I’ll let you be the judge on that one….