Team Defense

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted, and I apologize for that.  Coaching t-ball this year has put my mind back in this mode, and given me plenty of material.  I’ll try to keep posting this year, even after t-ball season is over.

OK, I’m not sure if this is going to come out of my head and to the keyboard the way I envision it, but here goes.  Picture yourself on the bleachers of a Little League game, preferably Minors or Rookies, because the analogy misses something in t-ball, and usually doesn’t look the same in Majors or above.

Now, in this game, the pitcher is God, the batter is a person’s first impression of God, religion, the church, etc.  The ball is an unsaved person.

Our game is a little backward.  When you get an out, it’s a person saved.  If they make it home, it’s a life lived without Jesus, ending in Hell.

I know, as saved people, we associate home with Heaven, and in most of my posts, that’s the way it works, but this a different scenario.

Let’s put the ball in play.

God pitches and our person is hit into the field of believers, to convert.  The Short Stop is watching for the ball, but he dives and misses.  He told our lost person about Jesus, but didn’t have an immediate impact.  The left fielder , however, was on it, backed him up, fired the ball off as the runner is now nearly at second.  He spoke into this person’s life a little more, and something happened because of it.  The second baseman catches the ball, sweeps down for the sliding base-runner, and tags him out.  He made the conversion!

It took all three players to get that one.  You could say the Short Stop didn’t have any impact, and in a baseball game, it’s easy to see who did and didn’t have an impact on a play, but not so in life always, so we’ll give him credit for the attempt.

While the Second Baseman got the out, it took the work of other team members to make the play.  He could not have fielded the ball in left field and made the tag at second alone.

Sometimes, you’ll get a pop fly, and it’s a one-man out.  No one else has ever spoken to this person about the Bible, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or religion in general.  He’s never seen a televangelist, never heard a single Scripture.  You are the first person to ever make contact with him in regards to spiritual things, and the Holy Spirit enables you to make the play.

OK, really, where are you if you have that opportunity, the Amazon?  That just doesn’t happen in the world we live in today.  There is always someone assisting on the play; maybe years before you spoke to this person, but there was someone there ahead of you.  It may even have gone very badly in the past, but there was someone there.  At some point, this person heard or saw something relating to God.

This correlates directly to John 4:35-38.  There, Jesus tells the disciples that they will reap where another has sown.  Someone else has prepared the ground and planted the harvest.  The crops are ready to be harvested.

That’s what we’re saying here.  You will get the out where another has chased down the ball, and thrown it to you.  All you have to do is catch it, and make the tag.

Sometimes, though, you’re not the one who gets the tag.  You’re one of the people along the way who will get the assist on the play.

It doesn’t matter where in the play you are.  What matters is that you’re out there, playing defense.  You have your glove on, and you’re ready when God sends a ball your way.  If you’re in on the play, you’re in on the win.