Voices From the Diamond
                                             May 7, 2021

    “What a great day for baseball.  Let’s play two.”
              –Ernie Banks

    “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”
              –Philippians 2:3 (NKJV)
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No, you’re at the right place, and no I’m not changing the name of the morning devotion, except for today.  I have pondered since Monday about playing baseball.  Not dwelling on it, mind you, but thinking about it.  Maybe it is because of my birthday, and I’m older than the wood in some of those bats.  Perhaps it’s because of the book I’m reading about Bobby Richardson: Impact Player, or maybe just plain old nostalgia.
    From the time I was ten years old, all I ever wanted to do was play baseball.  If I wasn’t playing in a game, or practicing on a team I could always find a game going on at a school yard.  I would throw my glove on the handlebars of my bike and ride through the town of Boulder looking for a game.  If none was to be found I went to the back yard.  We had back steps, three of them and I would throw a tennis ball against them then field it playing an imaginary game.  Once in a while the ball would jump backward and hit the screen.  That wasn’t a problem until the screen broke and the ball would go up and hit the back door.  When I was fourteen we moved and the house had a stone foundation about four feet high–perfect for throwing a ball against hit for I had no idea where it would carom and I moved from a tennis ball to handballs and sometimes golf balls.  If it was raining I had developed a game with dice and I would play games between teams.  I had at least half the major league teams memorized.
    I was fortunate for Boulder was a baseball town.  I played, when I was twelve, on the All-Star team, the Boulder Skyline Larks.  We were able to take the state title, and then traveled by train to Cedar City, UT.  Now if that wasn’t an experience for a twelve year old and all because of baseball.  I was instrumental in defeating a team from Nevada by hitting two homeruns and driving in five.  We won a second game, then on to Salt Lake City where we were defeated by a team from Arizona in extra innings.  Talk about tears in the dugout.
    I was able to make the team in junior high where I played third base, and then made the team in high school where I played second, my normal position.  Through the years I played a lot at shortstop but second was my favorite position.  The shortstop and I practiced hours upon hours of different ways of turning a double play.  I learned that you don’t catch the ball but let it hit an open glove.  I was proud of my letter jacket–high school letterman, whooeee.
    Then on to college where I played four years.  That was the beginning of the change.  A change that was slow in coming because of my dreams, my desires.  No, I really didn’t worship baseball, but that’s all I wanted to do.  I had a good college career, even if we always didn’t have the greatest team, we had a good team.  I had a few scouts looking at me, and I talked with a couple.  In the summer I played semi-pro baseball after American Legion.  Like I said, Boulder was a great baseball town back then, and there was the awesome, powerful semi-pro team, the Boulder Collegians.  I played on the other Boulder semi-pro team, the Boulder Nuggets, consisting primarily of local talent.
    During my sophomore year in college, then my second year with the Nuggets, I could feel something deep-down gnawing at my heart.  It had always been baseball, baseball, baseball.  Ernie Banks once said, “Generate happiness within yourself,” and that’s what baseball was able to do.  I served the Lord, I wanted to serve the Lord.  I was president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in college and was able to attend one of their camps in Estes Park.
    Baseball began to dwindle.  At the time I couldn’t tell you why.  A coach came my way with whom I didn’t get along with very well and that was unusual for me.  I still played as hard, for I took the Scriptures for a “motto” play as unto the Lord.  Which I was.  But was I giving my life totally to Him?  Little things happened.  But finally, it was while playing for the Nuggets that I realized I was in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing.  I had always played with kids who were not Christian, but now I was with adults and that is total different lifestyle.  The Lord was gently showing me that I was laying up treasures in the wrong places.
    To shorten the story, I tell people that I was finally drafted.  No, it wasn’t by the Tigers or the Red, the two teams that talked to me the most, but it was by Uncle Sam.  Vietnam was going hot and heavy, and I knew that as soon as I graduated, I would be drafted so I enlisted before I graduated and left for basic training one week after graduation.  In the Air Force I played fast pitch softball, which was fun, but it wasn’t like good old hardball, and back to the realization that I didn’t belong with those men.  The Lord took baseball from me; no, He didn’t grab me by the shoulders and said, “No, you can’t play!” but my little nudges along the way.  If was over a dozen years before I picked up a baseball and I was fortunate to coach a high school team in Louisiana.
    The game has changed so much.  Attitudes have changed, the game has changed, doubleheaders are almost a thing of the past (wouldn’t Ernie be disappointed?), now there is analytical baseball.  In other words, the computer tells you where to play.  Gone are the days of reading the hitter, how he stood in the batter’s box, what our pitcher was throwing.  (Sorry, I got side-lined for a moment shaking my head.)
    The Lord gave me wonderful opportunities.  I learned confidence, I learned to speak before people, I learned the importance of team.  I learned that there are more important things in life, such as the Lord Himself, family, and friends.  I was given a great ministry of teaching and discipling students for the Lord and for twenty-eight years I was able to coach.  Ha, but only a few of those years was I able to coach baseball.  I will finish this little biographical sketch (and I’m sorry to be long today, but I could have gone on) with the words from the other DiMaggio–Dom.

         “With us, the game and the desire to play it were the number one priority.  We took a tremendous pride in what we did and in how the public viewed us.  The money was well down on the list, maybe the third or fourth or fifth reason we were major league baseball players in 1941.” (or I could day 1968)
                   –Dom DiMaggio

    Today players want the money, but back in the day we would have paid to play.  If you would go to my university and look at the field no one could tell you how it came to be.  Everyday, after practice, and in the off season, about a half dozen of us players would take the time to work on the field–lay it out, mark it, put in the mound, make sure it was dragged, etc.  Come on, Ernie–let’s play two!

There was always a new ridge and a new canyon, and appreciation of them was heightened by a sense of expectancy.”
              –Luke Short  (Last Hunt)

    “For to me, to live is Christ [He is my source of joy, my reason to live] and to die is gain [for I will be with Him in eternity].”
              –Philippians 1:21(Amplified)
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How To Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World

Key Verse:  “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”  –1 John 5:19 (NASB)

Sometimes this old world gets us down.  When we look around at all of the evil and stupidity a person can get somewhat discouraged.  The devil would like to fill your heart with fear, and if that doesn’t work, he will just inject a bit of fear, of anxiety, of question.  These few verses from 1 John are to uplift us.  The enemy is out there, but we are overcomers.  We once walked in the darkness, but now we walk in the light.

         12 “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you on account of His name. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”
                   –1 John 2:12-14(NASB)

    I have heard people say, good people, Christian people–“I can’t help it, I’m only human” as if that give an excuse.  There is a tendency nowadays to stop seeking to do the will of God.  People still live in the past, they say “I’m a sinner, but saved.”  Instead it should be, “I’m a saint, who sometimes lives with sin.”  Listen we strive to be holy, to do our best to keep His commandments.  Yes, it is a high standard, and we moan when we fail that we can’t do it.  Yes, we can, after we first get up and continue along the way.  The Holy Spirit is there to help us.
    These few verses show us the essentials of life.  Our sins have been forgiven, we know the Father, we have overcome the evil one.  We are strong in the Lord, and we have the Word of God to help us overcome.  We have the means, the power, and the victory–now we should live in it.  There is really no excuse for failure.  We no longer live in sin.  Provision has been made for salvation; provision has been made if we do sin (1 John 1:9).
    The past is there, we cannot erase the past, but we must be clear about the past.  We do not, we must not live in regret, but realize the love of Jesus for us and His provision for our daily walk and for the future.  We overcome sin because we have the Word of God in our hearts.

         “For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.”
                   –1 Peter 1:23 (NASB)

         “Therefore, ridding yourselves of all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.”
                   –James 1:21

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones states, “If we feel that the demands of this Christian life are too high or impossible, it is nothing but sheer ignorance, a sheer lack of faith.”  Read the verses at the top again–we are victors, we are overcomers.
    True, as we go through this Christian journey of life, circumstances change.  Obstacles change as we grow in Christ.  It’s just like a baby growing–they are given tasks that fit their age and life, as they grow the tasks change.  As in our physical life, the spiritual life is much the same, as an adult we must work harder.  The struggles you have as you mature in Christ are different from when you first accepted Him into your life.

A man has to face up to himself sometime or other.  You can go on being satisfied or ducking the issue only so long, and then there comes a time when you start asking yourself, not what you’ve done with your summer wages, but with your whole life up to that minute.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (Hanging Woman Creek)

    “Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord….”
              –Lamentations 2:19(NKJV)
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I like the Psalms.  I read them constantly, and at this point in my life I wish that I had memorized many more of them.  They are good for inspiration.  They are good for comfort.  They are good for guidance.  They are good to use in worship and praise to the Lord.  However, one reason I like them is that so many were written by David and they reflect the reality of his life and how he lived through the trials, troubles, and tribulations that came his way.
    Just contemplate the first two verses of Psalm 55,

         “Listen to my prayer, O God.  Do not ignore my cry for help!  Please listen and answer me, for I am overwhelmed by my trouble.” (NLT)

Have you ever found yourself in that situation, praying that same type of prayer?  People declare they want a relationship with God, where here you have one.  David knew God.  David turned to God when he struggled with abandonment and betrayal.  It seems that he might have been concerned that God would leave him as well.  As we see in the next few verses, David is in anguish.  Why is this happening to me? he wondered.  God are you there? he questioned.  

         3 – My enemies shout at me, making loud and wicked threats.  They bring trouble on me, hunting me down in their anger.
         4 – My heart is in anguish.  The terror of death overpowers me.
         5 – Fear and trembling overwhelm me.  I can’t stop shaking. (NLT)

In verse 4, the literal translation for “anguish” is “trembling with pain.”  Have you ever had so much pain that you actually trembled?  Has your body shook because of the pain and you think that you can’t handle it anymore?  Add to that the anxiety of those you thought were friends turning against you.  The NIV translates verse 3 and 5 this way:

         3 – at the voice of the enemy, at the stares of the wicked; for they bring down suffering upon me and revile me in their anger.
         5 – Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.

One would think that David was living in today’s society and facing the onslaught of the enemy.
    Many times I could have related to the final words to this first part of Psalm 55.  Let me go to the high lonesome; let me get away from all the stupidity and hatred around me.

         6 – Oh, how I wish I had wings like a dove; then I would fly away and rest!
         7 – I would fly far away to the quiet of the wilderness.  Interlude (Selah)
         8 – How quickly I would escape–far away from this wild storm of hatred. (NLT)

However, the Holy Spirit will not allow us to escape.  We are where He has placed us.  We are to be steadfast and trust in His leadership and guidance.  The Lord will give us comfort, He will not forsake us.  Fleeing is not the answer for there will the issues will follow and by fleeing there will be added problems.

         “Oh, were I a feathered dove,
          And innocence had wings.
          I’d fly and with the God I love,
          Leave all these restless things.”
                 –Isaac Watts