Seriously though, there is something so applicable when we think about baseball as a metaphor for ministry. Anything can happen. The Giants came back when everyone had written them off. Interestingly, the Reds were making a fine comeback, pulling within two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, when the Giant's closing pitcher threw the final pitch for a strikeout. The Reds has as much of a chance of winning as the Giants did at that point in the game. When I think about ministry here in the San Luis Valley, sometimes I'm filled with a quiet desperation, a hidden fear that afflicts me with momentary panic, about the hope I carry that God could actually use me to accomplish His mission. The task seems so huge...the obstacle too large to overcome. How can people be impressed with the beauty and comfort of God when most don't even carry the slightest inclination that He exists?
Like in the game I just witnessed however, anything can happen. But more importantly than that, the reality is that the game is already over, God has already won, and the proverbial champagne is already pouring on the heads of the victors. It's as if the enemies players are still in the field waiting at the plate to bat, and the stadium is still filled with onlookers convinced that the other team is going to run back on the field. If you were watching a baseball game like this, you would think the other team was nuts...you'd be yelling for them to just give up: "The game is over!!" "The other team is already celebrating!!" You'd be walking among the spectators like concessionaires with peanuts and explaining to the crowd that they can begin to cheer and take part in the celebration already happening in the locker room. This is the idea of sharing your faith, of spreading the "Good News"...it's sharing with people still in the stands that the victory that is already over and revealing the truth about the victor. Romans 8:31-39 states:
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This next week, I want to encourage all Followers of Christ to confidently walk away from the field in the realization that the game is over...there's nothing left to watch. Instead, let the people of God turn to the stands and walk alongside the onlookers long enough to share the truth of the Victor. Pray for me, as I pray for you, that we will realize that God is already at work in the world around us and our role will continue to be that of those deliverers of hope, confident in the victory, and helping others to know that "anything" has already happened.
October magic is important...at least until the final out of the World Series. But God's victory is eternal and that perspective will keep His people "in the stands" until the appointed day in which He will call His people home.
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