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Sunday afternoon I
had the pleasure of watching one of the greatest ball
games ever. It wasn’t the Yankees or the Braves. There
were no household names like Barry Bonds or Chipper
Jones. It was the Little League World Series. It was
none the less a great game! It had all the things that
make for great baseball. Talented players, home runs,
great defense and pitching. The game was ultimately
decided in extra innings when a kid from rural Georgia
hit a home run to defeat the team from Japan. I felt a
tremendous sense of pride that our team whipped those
Japanese boys, after all, baseball is America’s pastime.
During the celebration and congratulations that followed
the game winning homerun, I saw something that made me
feel ashamed of my pride at winning. As the boys from
the two teams met on the field to shake hands, I saw
young boys, children, who were in tears because of their
disappointing defeat. Then I saw something that made me
prouder to be an American than any sporting event could
ever hope. I saw young American boys hugging the players
from the Japanese team and offering them genuine comfort
in their loss.
In the midst of all the allegations of performance
enhancing drug use and high profile professional
athletes that have been charged with and convicted of
all sorts of criminal activity, I saw how it should be
and I remember from my days as a Little League player
something we would say before every game, the Little
League pledge. I wonder if it is still used.
“I trust in God, I love my country and will respect it’s
laws.
I will play fair and strive to win.
But win or lose, I will always do my best.”
Those boys got it right. How we can learn from them!
Jesus knew that the children got it. Remember when he
said to his disciples that they should let the little
children come to him, Eugene Peterson in The Message
paraphrases Mark 10:13-16 this way, “Don’t push these
children away. Don’t ever get between them and me. These
children are at the very center of life in the kingdom.
Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the
simplicity of a child you’ll never get in.”
If our children can get it right, surely we can too.
Simple caring, simple compassion, simple faith, and
simple love. It’s the stuff from which the kingdom is
made.
Love, Fred
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