Team Game

Sometimes, it is incredibly discouraging being a parent.

Today, my son had a baseball game – probably his 6th of the year or so.  This is the 4th time he was on the bench for a significant portion of the game (the other times, the team didn’t have enough players to field a team, so he “had” to play and they filled in the rest of the roster with a few subs).

I get that he’s not the world’s best baseball player, but he is 9.  There is an age where you play the best players and try and win the game no matter what, but I am pretty sure that it’s not at age 9 when most kids are learning to not be scared of the harder ball and swing at everything that is within a 5 foot sphere of the plate.

Besides, I’ve watched the other kids, and you can’t tell me that most of them are head an shoulders above where he is – they aren’t.  I am discouraged because I don’t see the coaches helping the kids work on their skills or even encouraging them.  When my son is “on the bench”, no one talks to him – he is alone.  I’d love to make the argument that the kids are getting good skills in practice except that they don’t hold practices once the games start.

Not surprisingly, our enthusiasm as a family for the game of baseball is waning fast.

My son wants who know why he should show up if he’s not going to play and pretty much be ignored when he’s not in the game.  I as a parent want to know how he is supposed to improve himself if he doesn’t play, and why the other kids don’t have to sit once in a while so other kids can develop.

This isn’t to disparage his coach at all – I am sure he loves the game of baseball and he’s doing the best job he knows how to do.  I have a lot of respect for someone who would volunteer their time and try and work with a bunch of young kids – it is not easy.  However, I would absolutely love to see him have a little more respect for where other kids are skill-wise and work on bringing them up vs. putting them “on the bench”.

As easy as it would be to cast judgement on my son’s coach for this, the reality is that there is a little bit of “Coach” in all of us.  In processing how I feel about what’s been going on in a baseball sense, I realized that there are a lot of similarities to my son’s coach and what we do to other people on their spiritual journeys.

When it comes to Christianity, there is a tendency to glorify the “great players” – the ones who do mission trips, work with drug addicts, and just lead a life of love and prayer.  That’s great – the church needs those people, and I couldn’t be happier that there are people in God’s Kingdom like that.  Those are our “go-to” people, the ones always “in the game”…

However, what about the people who are taking their first steps as Christians, or even trying to give Christianity another shot?  Should we not be equally celebrating the people who volunteer to fold bulletins for the first time?  What about the person who steps forward and asks for prayer after being unsure about all this “God stuff”?  What about the person who isn’t sure God is even real, but something in their heart prompts them to give $5 to a homeless person?

Personally, I believe in a God who celebrates all of those things.  Yet, we tend to get caught up in the fact that people aren’t part of the same denomination we are or that their worship doesn’t look like ours.  We judge.  Still others act like if you’re not planning your next mission trip, you seriously need to be reconsidering your relationship with God.

When we think that way, or worse, say these things out loud, not surprisingly, people’s  enthusiasm for Christianity fades fast.

After all, why should they bother to show up for church if they are going to feel like an outsider when they do so?  Why should they feel like their contributions (no matter how “small”) don’t matter?  What good is “enthusiasm” when they’re never going to as “good at this” as others are, or that their spiritual growth has stalled?

Is this really how we get people to love God?  By “putting them on the bench”?

Luckily, we play for a “Coach” that wants everyone on His team to “play”.  Moreover, he equips each of us with a mind and talents to accomplish His will on earth.  He doesn’t care if you’re new to the Christian faith or have been to seminary.  He has a spot for you, and He encourages you to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit.  All you have to do is show up!

And, everyone on the team – no matter how “skilled” – has a responsibility to uplift, encourage, and treat every person on the team as if they are the most important person on it.  When we do this, everyone is enriched and everyone grows.  We are free to exercise grace and are able to let love manifest itself more fully in our lives.  The goal isn’t winning; it’s helping everyone get better day by day.

How much more appealing would Christianity be if the team worked this way all the time?  What good could we do collectively?  Think about it…