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The Sacrifice Play
A Baseball Player’s Meditation on 1 Corinthians 13
by David Dean, Student of the Month from Bellevue Christian School
If your bat is quick enough to catch up to the heat and you can keep your weight back on the curve, but you do not have love, it is no better than striking out. If you take an 0-2 pitch on the outside corner to the opposite field and can turn a double play with lightning quickness, but do not have love, you are nothing.
If you can track a fly ball off the bat, run it down, and make the catch on the warning track, but don’t have love, you might as well not be in the line-up. Whatever your batting average is, without love, it is no better than zero.
Love never gives up when you are behind in the count.
Love is happy for the DH when he gets a hit, even if it means that you don’t get to bat.
Love doesn’t envy someone else’s brand new Redline.
Love doesn’t act cocky.
It is not arrogant on or off the field,
Doesn’t force the coach to put them in the game,
Doesn’t complain if it isn’t the lead-off batter,
Never throws a wild pitch,
Doesn’t keep track of another player’s errors,
Isn’t delighted if a competitor has a bad game,
Takes pleasure in playing a fair game,
Keeps practicing even if they are cut from the team,
Trusts God always,
Always waits for its pitch,
Never second-guesses a decision it makes,
And keeps going strong until the game is over.
Love never quits. Pep talks will lose their effectiveness; signals will sometimes be missed; only so much can be learned about the game. We know only a part of God’s glory, we overlook Him and don’t give Him the credit that He deserves. He will receive all the credit in the world when He comes again.
When I pitched in Little League, I relied on my strength to overpower batters. When I got into Koufax, I learned how to pitch using strategy rather than brute force.
We cannot fully understand why God lets games turn out a certain way. We are in the dark and can only guess. But soon He will make it clear why He lets us win and lose.
But until we know His perfection, we have three things to practice: Trust God, hope to persevere, and love always. The greatest of these is love.
(Incorporated as part of a Christmas Letter to the BBRC from the Dean Family.)
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