Happy Halloween!

Sports Update

I’m trying to stay quiet to minimize the risk of jinxing the series but I can’t contain myself, Pedro was great! Yes I know the Phillies lost 3-1, but here is a 38 year old guy who wasn’t even pitching in the majors this year and here he is back in Yankee stadium. As for who’s whose daddy, let’s see 6 innings of work, 3 earned runs (one of which was the cheapest homerun ever), and 8 strikeouts. Gee I wonder what the answer is. Hopefully the Phillies can come back to win. Also this year I am determined to watch more Celtics games. Last year was such a painful off-season; I need something to watch so I’ll be more involved with the Celtics, even though I don’t know the first thing about Basketball. Also, my second full year of baseball has ended and here I am left to mull over my successes and failures so I’ll be posting a lot on hitting and mindset/philosophy of baseball.

The Good Kind of Burn

If there is one thing I can walk away with from the past few months, it is that God tests us. God is always testing us, not in a mean way, as if He were trying to stump us. No, God tests us to make us better and in turn more like Him. In my ceramics class, after we fire the clay we glaze it and fire it again at a hotter temperature. The glaze is pretty unimpressive at first, usually it bears little resemblance to the actual color and it’s very dull. But after going through the kiln the color explodes out and becomes bright and shiny and smooth, it is after the second firing the clay truly becomes a work of art. It is similar with us, throughout our lives God is constantly putting us through that second firing, where we transform from a dull caricature to a true masterpiece. Now what if the glaze turned and said “Whoa wait a minute, you’re going to put me through that? Now way Jose, I’m just fine the way I am.” Imagine looking at clay pots covered in a powdery dull paint, having no idea they could be vibrant pieces of art. In our struggles God puts us through a fire to transform us into His own masterpieces; it’s up to us to either follow and let Him or settle for dullness. “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” Romans 5: 3-4.

Clarification

I was talking with my dad and I feel I need to clarify my last post. My dad raised a good objection to what I wrote. He said “Tay Tay, the greatest people I know are those who are close to God and know Him, also what about witnessing, the disciples knew Jesus was God and they didn’t sit around doing nothing. Also if you knew for sure God existed wouldn’t you devote your life to telling people?” That is true, if Marty looked around and saw Sox fans despairing then he would certainly tell people, just like if I knew the Cubs would win next year I would tell people (sorry I couldn’t help it). My point though is that the Sox series in 2004 is a picture of faith and the way God works. First off, after 86 years and down 3-0 it didn’t look good, it looked like number 87 until the game turned around. To say the Sox would win would have been illogical but also hopeful. It is that hope that I see as a picture of faith. I used to want God to perform a miracle, to do something. After I got the call from my boss to catch at Fenway I thought I was dreaming and actually checked the website to confirm there was a “Fenway Fantasy Day”. Sounds silly but it’s true. Imagine if God preformed a miracle for me, could I not go and say ‘Oh silly me I must have been dreaming, oh no wait I ate chicken for lunch and I know what that does to me” (chicken actually does nothing to me). I guess my main point is this, if there were a “God proof” meaning I could say A=B, B=C, A=C, and that was it then where would there be the hope, the credibility? It means nothing for me to say I believe the sun rose today, it takes faith to say I believe it will rise tomorrow. My last point, knowledge is a lot different than faith, the disciples saw Jesus, the Pharisees saw Jesus, they both saw the same guy do the same things but the disciples (while backed up with knowledge) put their faith in Jesus, the Pharisees (while backed with the same exact knowledge) refused to put their faith in Jesus. While facts and formulas and certainty are good, when a new believer comes to faith it really boils down to the power of God in his life, and his own decision to believe.

Watching with Anticipation

Faith is a lot like baseball. I was thinking about faith after finished “Faith and Doubt” by John Ortberg and I thought about the movie “Back to the Future II”. In the movie Marty and Doc. travel to the year 2015 and while there Marty buys a sports almanac book. So, you could conclude that Marty would know who won the World Series in 2004. In today’s society we like to have certainty, I often get shot down for my beliefs because I “can’t prove it”. In 2004 the Sox were down 3-0 to the Yankees, 86 long years looked like it was about to turn into 87 when something amazing happened, the Red Sox went on to win not only the next 4 to beat the Yankees they also won 4 after that to sweep the Cardinals. While Red Sox fans sat with anticipation, having faith that despite the odds the Sox could win, Marty already knew. Ever watch a replay of a game when you already know the score? I always stop when my team scores all the runs that it will, I know the outcome so why bother? It’s like that in life. We don’t know the outcome, things look bad, we can be down 3-0, but we don’t know the end of the story. Imagine if we knew for sure that God existed, I mean 100% knowledge no doubt whatsoever. Well, what would the point of life be, I mean if what’s the point of living down here if for 70 years (give or take) if all we are doing is waiting to go to Heaven? I’m not saying doubt is exciting, it can be downright terrifying, but without faith life and even worship becomes meaningless. Anyone can watch 9 innings when they know their team will win in the end, it takes faith and trust to watch 9 innings where the ending is unknown.

Even More Thoughts on Faith and Doubt

I have just finished reading this book called “Faith and Doubt” by John Ortberg. It was pretty interesting, but I have to say I walked away from it getting something different than I originally sought. My main thought is this, in faith we need doubt because without doubt there is no faith, I also found through my own experience there is no “God proof” or certainty. I’m going to write a few posts on my thoughts on faith and doubt. I was tempted to say “last thoughts” as if I were “safe” or out of the dangers of doubt now that my faith is more secure, but one thing I’ve realized is that this faith struggle wasn’t a disease that has a beginning and end, it’s not like I “cracked the code”, it’s just another leg in the journey that brings me closer to God.

Good Trades

Imagine if you could have anything in the world. What’s the catch? Oh well…you can only have it for a thousand days, but think one thousand days that’s like 2 years and 8 months (yes I actually did the math out). Well I know what I would want, maybe I would be a really good baseball player and play for the Red Sox, or maybe own a nice Italian restaurant… Well the Psalmist who wrote Psalm 84 had the same idea, but it was a little different. Verse 10 says “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere”. Wow. James writes that faith is shown in our actions and deeds (for more check out James ch.1-3), and this Psalmist definitely expresses his love for God enough to give up a thousand days anywhere he could desire for one day in the courts of God. I wrote earlier about poor trades and Felix was definitely bad at trading, he couldn’t see that to spend even one second in the glory of God is just indescribably amazing. While we won’t get this chance to trade in 2 years for one day in the presence of God we can trade in what gets in our way of God. For example baseball (yes I said it) can definitely get in the way so sometimes I need to tone it down a bit and put God first. While it is never easy it is definitely 200% worth it (number intended).

Poor Trades

I was reading Acts and one thing that stood out to me is Felix. I’ve never really given him much thought until I read this one verse “As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said ‘That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you’” Acts 24:25. That is basically Felix-speak for “Hey Paul, what makes you think you can tell me how to live my life, I can change any time I want to, I just don’t want to right now.” At this point Paul has already gone on many missionary journeys, even to the pagan Greece. Then he told the Elders that he must go to Jerusalem where he was arrested and put in jail for a long while. And now Felix, the governor who is “well acquainted with the way” vs.22, wants to speak to him. While I haven’t had any outbursts of yelling at people about where they get the right to lecture me, I have held back a few areas of my life from God. Hey it’s just a few right? Not according to God, Jesus said in Mathew 5:29 that “if you right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away”. Wow that’s tough to swallow, but think of it God is two things, our creator and infinitely good, so for one it is in our own best interest to drop the things that get between us and Him because He knows us best and what is best for us. And also, because He is so good isn’t He worth it? Felix didn’t get it that he was, as C.S. Lewis described it, trading a vacation at the beach for a day in the sandbox.

Sox Summary

Well the Sox season is over, after watching game 1 I didn’t think they had much of a chance of beating the Angels, basically what we saw was a case of good starting pitching, bad bullpen pitching and really quiet offense. I checked the stats and when your top hitter average wise is Jacoby Ellsbury followed by J.D. Drew with .250 and .222 averages respectively you know something is wrong. Overall I think what went wrong was a culmination of what has been going wrong all year, the Red Sox have had trouble hitting against good pitching and the bullpen has been on and off, Papelbon, while arguably very good is not the best closer in baseball and his ineffectiveness which was shown in July was again shown in this series. While the season had its ups and downs (mainly downs towards the end) it was fun to watch and being new to watching the Sox on a regular basis I enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed Lester and Beckett developing as pitchers, mainly Lester as Beckett is older. Another highlight is Wakefield’s first All Star nomination. Lastly were the late acquisitions of Alex Gonzalez and Victor Martinez. I didn’t watch the Sox in 06’ so I never saw the defensive genius of Gonzalez, I only heard stories of the “vacuum” we had at short, and Martinez elite hitting was well appreciated too. Also J.D. Drew had his best year offensively for the Sox hitting 24 home runs and getting 68 RBI’s and compiling a .279 average, and also having a second best (to his .994 in 03) .992 fielding percentage. On to next year, honestly, I think unless the Red Sox spend some money (and by that I mean they can’t be penny pinchers like last year) they will be roughly the same team and will produce the same results, which doesn’t give too us much hope for a better season.

End of the Season

I can’t believe there are only two games left in the regular season! I love the playoffs and all but this season flew by way too fast. So much happened, I feel like I missed it all. The Sox had a good year, and even though there was some trouble with the pitching they pulled it together and really fought through the season to get to the playoffs. Also some hitters really came through, Ortiz had a great season despite his huge slump, Drew has been really good and has had a hot bat for the past two months, Lowell has proved all of us wrong, Bay has been good, Jacoby was the leadoff man we’ve been waiting for, and how could we forget Youk? Well here we are, the ALDS is next week when the Sox will face the Angels and the Yankees will face of the AL Central winner. It’s been a good season and it’ll be hard to wait till April, oh well I guess by November it’ll be back to watching Honeymooners episodes and the Godfather.

Only a Picture

I was helping out in a church near my house last night, I’ve wanted to serve more and so I looked around and found a youth group that I can help lead so I feel very blessed by finding this church. Anyway we were going to watch the movie Radio but only two kids showed up so we watched a short video. It was a short video, about 12 minutes long but it really struck me. The subject was getting to know God and one question the guy asked was “what does God look like?” So we went around in the group talking about what God looks like and when it was my turn I didn’t know. When my faith struggle started I found myself trying to “imagine God” meaning think more about his physical features than Him. The danger in this is we can lean on this picture as truth and then fall away from God. Think of it this way, imagine I paint a picture of a sunset and then someone comes up to me and says “That is the sunset!” Of course it’s not, it is only a picture; it is only a vague idea of the true experience of seeing a sunset. When I was thinking about God in the physical sense I completely missed out on who He really is. The best idea we get is what God told Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to tell the Israelites: I AM has sent you” Exodus 3:14. I now feel that there are only two pictures of God given to us, one is Jesus and then there are those who are close to God and shine His love onto others.