It occurred to me how fast things can change in a person’s life.”
              –Lou Bradshaw (One Man Standing)

    “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
              –2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
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If God is in charge, why do people suffer; why do I suffer?  It is important for us to gain a proper perspective on this matter.  Bottom line–sometimes we suffer because we deserve it.  Sometimes we do stupid things and then have to pay the consequences.
    Look at pain for a minute.  Oh my, do my legs hurt this morning; sometimes the pain is tremendous.  Three years ago I had a severe pain in my chest and had to be taken to the emergency room–heart attack.  See in that situation, pain was good.
         1)  All pain is not bad.  Pain is a warning of danger.  It is part of God’s warning system.  Pain tells us that something is wrong.
         2)  Pain now can bring about a greater good.  I had the pain in my heart, so they could find the problem and relieve the pain and keep me alive.
         3)  Pain is a great teacher.  That is true if we have done something stupid.
         4)  Pain is sometimes the result of the Lord disciplining us.  When I was a kid my aunt would spank me with a thin belt.  I didn’t mind it on the backside, but she figured that out and would then target the back of my legs.  The Lord sometimes has to take a “spiritual belt” to us.  (Oh, that surely is not popular today.)
         5)  Our loving heavenly Father knows there are some things more important than living a life without hurt.  Think of Jacob.  Wrestling with the Angel of the Lord, his hip was injured and he would feel that pain the rest of his life, but with that experience his life was changed forever.  Righteousness is more important and drawing closer to God is more important than living a life without hurt.
    I’m not saying pain is joyful, and that we shouldn’t pray for healing, but we also need to look at the larger picture.  Ponder these Scriptures:

         “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
                      –Philippians 2:5-8 (NKJV)

I was reading and found this illustration.  A father, upon the death of his son, became very bitter.  He shouted to the pastor, “Where was your God when my son was killed?”  The pastor replied, “He was in the same place He was when His own Son was killed.”  God feels and understands our pain.

It seemed strange to him that the older you get, the more self-reflective you become.  He never used to dwell on things before.”
              –J.S. Stroud  (The Old Rider)

    “And now, in my old age, don’t set me aside. Don’t abandon me when my strength is failing.”
              –Psalm 71:9 (NLT)
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Un-American, that’s what it is, un-American.  Come on, every man out there carries a pocketknife.  It’s just the way we are, the way we were brought up.  I can’t remember when I started carrying a jackknife in my pocket.  I remember, way back in elementary school we would play mumblety-peg, or stretch. No one thought we were dangerous.  Plus, it was one thing that was used almost every day.  
    Well, a couple of months back I went to the Houston Stock Show.  We walked through the gate and a rather stout police officer called me over after looking at me.  “You’re carrying a pocketknife, aren’t you?”  (talk about profiling) I replied in the affirmative and took it out of my pocket.  He looked at it, smiled, and handed it back.  “Keep it in your pocket.”  I was allowed in.  I didn’t think there would be a problem with a little jackknife in my pocket.  Then yesterday, we went to the Astros game.  The was a loud voice crying out, “No pocketknives allowed inside!”  Well, I had left mine at home.  Things have sure changed–almost un-American it is.
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         “Depression need not rob my day of its vitality and its challenges.  The human heart may be heavy for a multitude of reasons, personal within self or in the world around us.  Our personal problems from within seem never ending.  From without, we are concerned because of the world conflict, the oddities of the day, the uncertainties of our times.  Life was much easier to live when all life’s values and problems were black or white.  They grey areas of doubt and confusion seem to predominate today.
         Why another unhappy day?  Think briefly of life’s blessings–life itself, reasonably good health, and the unlimited opportunity for good.  In Him do I find my strength to believe despite the doubts that assail me, to hope despite my gloom, to live in the face of all the evidence of human hate that surrounds me.
         Make of your daily life the apocalypses of all things made new in the world you live in.  After all, the real business of life is salvation history.  Keep your Christian ideals alive in the human setting in which you find yourself.  In your environment help make religion real, worship meaningful, your involvement total.  The issues and problems of the day are your responsibilities, too.”
                 –Edwin R. Chess, Major General, USAF
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    I had a grand day yesterday.  It was a fun and very enjoyable birthday.  Thanks for all the wishes!

You must live your life.  Make it worth while.  Every man, every woman has a burden.  Lift yours cheerfully and begin to climb…  Love those with whom fate has placed you.  And fight–fight the dark moods, the selfish thoughts, the hateful memories!  Work…love.”
              –Zane Grey  (Wanderer of the Wasteland)

    “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
              –Philippians 4:8  (NLT)
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         “My hair’s falling out and my teeth are too
          I’ve had a double by-pass, and my hips are new
          But I won’t complain or make any noise
          Since I caught pneumonia and I lost my voice
          Things are bad but I’m convinced
          I’m in pretty good shape, for the shape I’m in.

          My car won’t start and I lost my job
          There’s a lien on my house and fleas on my dog
          I’d mow the grass but my lawnmower’s broke
          I’d pray for rain but my roof’s too old
          Times are tough but it beats where I’ve been
          I’m in pretty good shape for the shape I’m in.

                 For the shape I’m in, ain’t no big thing
                 As long as I can breathe my heart will sing
                 With a smile on my face and a peace within
                 I’m in pretty good shape for the shape I’m in.”
                           –Clifton Jansky

Now that ol’ boy has some problems.  I know with age there come a myriad of additional problems, but this fellow seems to have them come upon him all at once.  Maybe that’s good; get it over with.  I heard of another man, rodeo rider, whose mechanic and doctor formed a partnership.  Yep, some folk sure have it rough.
    That goes to show you that you don’t take any day for granted.  I sure don’t since June, three years ago.  The ol’ ticker took a smash, but since then I’m in pretty good shape for the shape I’m in.  I’ve always know it–the Lord knows the day and hour that He will call us, but I now have a different perspective on it.
    We need to be ready all the time, for anything that might come our way.  It may be one of the calamities above or it may be the time we lay at death’s door.  Therefore, Solomon wrote, “Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head.” (Ecclesiastes 9:8, NASB)

Most men never discover what they’ve got inside.  A man has to face up to trouble before he knows.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (The Daybreakers)

    “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”
              –Proverbs 4:23 (NLT)
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         “We loved the game, even doubleheaders–especially doubleheaders.  Oh, how I loved them!  They gave us the chance to play two games instead of only one.  If they had wanted us to play three, we would have been happy to.”
                   –Dom DiMaggio

Baseball!  For a decade of my life I lived and breathed baseball.  If I wasn’t playing or practicing I was watching it on TV and if it was the off-season I had a game I invented.  I had 5 or 6 teams and kept stats over the season.  I could tell you almost every player on every team.  If you ask me now, I would struggle to name a handful.
    It was my dream, my passion, and my hope.  It wasn’t until I went into the military that the Lord finally changed my priorities.  Even then, at my first assignment I played on three fastpitch softball teams.  But things changed, time has changed, the game has changed–I have changed.
    I rarely watch a game anymore.  So many changes to the game!  There are very few students of the game.  Now it is “digital”, meaning, feed information into the computer and adjust your defense accordingly.  What happened to studying the way the person stood in the batter’s box, the way he swung at a fastball?
    Can you imagine Ty Cobb playing today?  Some said he was a dirty player, not so, but he played with determination to win.  I remember I couldn’t wait to wear steel cleats.  The first time I covered second base with someone stealing, his name was Russ Hyder, he cut me across the shins.  No, I didn’t sit down and whimper and cry, or throw my glove down and throw a tantrum.  It was a lesson learned and I figured a better way to cover the bag.  But, that wasn’t my last or only cut.
    I think of the likes of Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale.  They would be persona non grata today for the person at bat after a homerun would definitely be knocked down.  It was expected, it was part of the game.  I remember reading what 300-game-winner Early Wynn said.  Someone told him that he would knock down his grandmother if she went to bat against him.  He was very solemn with his answer, “Only if she was digging in.”
    I don’t mind watching the Houston Astros too much.  At least they do some of the things that make the game and they have fun.  Are they digital?  Yes.
    Let me close this out with some great baseball quotations.  Yes, they are from players from a by-gone era–my era and before.

         “Baseball has a funny way of giving us treasured memories.”  (Brooks Robinson)
         “When you watch baseball at its best, there’s a tendency to forget the real world.”  (Mickey Mantle)
         “Baseball is like church.  Many attend, but few understand.”  (Wes Westrum)
         “Nobody ever said, ‘Work ball!’  They say, ‘Play ball!’  To me, that means having fun.”  (Willie Stargell)
         “The only real game in the world, I think, is baseball.”  (Babe Ruth)

    After I quit playing, I didn’t touch a baseball again for another decade.  I did coach for several years, but it was then I began to notice the change.  I had few with talent, and I had even fewer that would take the time to work on their talent.  Strikes in the pros–demanding more money and mercy, asking these players to play a doubleheader today would be a ridiculous request; it would be too physically demanding.  I saw a question on TV about what baseball records would never be broken.  I would say for sure Cy Young’s record of 749 complete games.  After so many pitches, the pitcher is gone.  Oh well…
    How is this a spiritual devotion?  First of all, what you find yourself doing and thinking about is who/what you love most.  Do you find yourself living and breathing the Word of God?  Hmmmm.  You need to be a student of the Word; “Study to show yourself approved.”  Perhaps you are negligent or even flippant when it comes to the Word of God.  Hmmm.  Are you into your Bible, and I don’t mean the phone you carry around, or perhaps you are a “digital” Christian?  You do what you want, and then when the Scripture brings conviction you pass if off and say that’s just your opinion.       
    Just don’t hand me a baseball…I might start to cry.
         “What a great day for baseball.  Let’s play two.”  (Ernie Banks)