In an Ideal World

Considering all that’s going on in trades, here is my ideal opening day lineup (despite it not being realistic)

C: Victor Martinez
P:
1) Jon Lester
2) Josh Beckett
3) Roy Halladay
4) Dice-K
5) Tim Wakefield
1B: Adrian Gonzalez
2B: Dustin Pedroia
SS: Alex Gonzalez (they should’ve kept him!)
3B: Kevin Youkilis
LF: Jason Bay
CF: Jacoby Ellsbury
RF: J.D. Drew
DH: David Ortiz, Mike Lowell (also on the bench)

The Living Word

I was reading Hebrews this morning and saw this verse “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4: 12. I’ve always loved this image of the Bible, as God’s living word working through us when we read it. There are a lot of people my age, and older or younger, who look at the Bible as this old, dusty book that doesn’t mean much, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth! When we read the Bible God kind of speaks to us through the words, like what I said earlier about a passage jumping out at me. It also works in us, we change at that moment and grow closer to God, and if we apply those words we become “imitators of Christ”. But another thing happens and this has happened to me a lot, a lot of the times if I’m in a bad spirit, let’s say I had a bad day, or things just aren’t going right, God’s word “penetrates” me, it digs down deep and stirs me up, and it’ll be like “Oh…I really shouldn’t have acted that way to so-and-so” (or something like that). While the truth can hurt, it also helps us and works in us to transform us ultimately making us better. The thing I love so much about the Bible is that it is not just a history book, or some account, or a list of miracles, it’s that when you let it, it speaks to you, it works in you, and you change. It’s like me going to the batting cage, I get a tune up, I get better, stronger. I don’t know what everyone does for devotions, but what I recommend is spending a few minutes every morning and just sit down and read one chapter (or more, or less) and let it speak, let it work on you. When you really stop and think that the Creator of the entire universe stopped to transfer His thoughts to us, it’s really, really cool.

Winter Meetings

Here’s an update on the Sox in the meetings so far, oh wait, there’s nothing to say because they have yet to make any kind of respectable trade at all! From what I’ve heard it sounds like the next few years will be “rebuilding years” meaning Sox fans can watch the Yankees win every time while our team lags far behind in third place. I seriously doubt the sell-out streak will continue with the way things look, essentially all the Red Sox have done is let players go and watched others get signed, well that isn’t a fair accusation they did sign a few nobodies over the past few days. But hey, just wait for four years for a team that can compete, that will put the whole team now past their prime. From what has gone on so far it doesn’t look good for Red Sox nation next year.

Gifts Part 2

An interesting thing I learned last week was that the book of James was actually inconsideration for being left out of the Bible. Yep, that’s right, one of my favorite books in the New Testament was almost left out (I’m glad God stopped them). The reason being that people incorrectly interpreted his “faith and deeds” passage to mean we need good works to get into Heaven. This couldn’t be farther from the truth and it also pertains to my gift analogy by answering the question of how are we to react to this gift we are given. James essentially says (it’s a long passage so I’ll summarize), that faith is no good without our good works to back it up. This is entirely true and it is found all the time in our daily life think if I want to apply for a loan but have no credit, is my word that I will pay it back good enough? This doesn’t mean we need to earn our salvation, but James is asking us to live it out. This goes back to how are we to respond to our gift from God? Should we just say a quick “thanks” and then forget about it and let it collect dust long after the holidays? NO! God gave us this gift of life so that it could be used, we have Jesus so that we can actively seek God everyday of the year, and the evidence of the seeking will be our good works. Think, if I work out the whole winter and really fine tune my swing then it will show in the spring, the same goes for our life with God, if we work hard and seek God first it will show in our works and our gift of life will be well used. This year try not to let this gift get away, instead of collecting dust with all the other stuff we get I say we actively pursue God this Christmas season, and every day afterward.

Gifts Part 1

As we journey forth into the Christmas season, I think back to last Christmas. Last year I got a really great gift, a new baseball bat. My old one was one to the cheaper models and while it got me through the year, it wasn’t a great bat. And to my surprise on Christmas morning I opened up a package with a brand new, top of the line, Demarini baseball bat! I was so shocked; I didn’t know what to say so I mumbled a “thank you” and gave my parents a hug. Looking back on that year there was a lot of stuff I did to not deserve that great gift. While I try my best to be a respectful and loving son/brother, there still are days when nothing seems to be going right and I take it out on the people I love most. Now, multiply that scenario by 1 million (no really, I did the calculations) and you get what it was like on a Christmas morning roughly 2000 years ago. There was nothing we as a people did to earn the gift God gave us, looking at the Israelite history/prophets you see that there was a ton they did to deserve the opposite. But the crazy thing is, is that God loves us so much. He didn’t have to give up His Son, and Jesus never had to die on the cross, the amazingly beautiful thing about is that it all happened! My dad asked me if I wanted a new baseball bat and I said no, Id didn’t want to give him any of the trouble of buying me a new bat, besides my old one was fine. But my dad did despite the fact that he didn’t need to. While getting caught up in the swirl around us this time of year, I say we try once to step back and focus on the real meaning of this magnificent holiday, that while we give and receive gifts from our friends and family, we also receive the greatest gift of all, a life with God through His Son.

Middle Ground?

Well the Christmas season is finally upon us after a long year, and to kick it off I tuned in to the Christmas station on the radio. I listened to some of my personal favorites, but one thing that shocked me is the lack of “religious” Christmas carols. One thing I’ve wondered it where the middle ground is, I mean I always hear two sides to Christmas, side A says “It is a religious Holiday, and the “secular” carols and movies are bad” and side B says “C’mon Man! Have a little fun, don’t be so stiff.” I think I have a reasonable approach to my dilemma. In 1Corinthians: 8, Paul deals with a pretty big issue in the Church. At the time it was common for the Greeks to sell meat sacrificed to idols. Some Christians said “Ha! Those idols are fake, what does it matter to me whether or not I eat this meat?” Some others said “Gosh, I can’t eat this, it is de-sanctified!” Paul replies that idols mean nothing; God is Lord over all, so in the end it doesn’t really matter. Now what does this have to do with Christmas? Paul then adds, “But not everyone knows this”. “Some people are still accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience is weak, it is defiled.” Paul then ends with “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.” Basically what Paul says can be applied to my situation. Listening to the “secular” carols/movies is perfectly fine, but the catch here is that it is only okay if my heart is set on God and God alone. If I am weak, and if these songs/movies distract me then they come between me and God, but if I am strong and I can toss them to the side when it comes to my focus on Jesus then they are perfectly fine. Anything that comes between us and God while on its own may be a good thing, turns into a bad thing, even something as simple as a song or movie. While it is fun to watch all the Christmas movies that are on, let us not forget the true gift of the season, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Red Sox News

Well I heard some scary news today, there’s a report that the Red Sox’ new shortstop could be (drum roll), Dustin Pedroia, yep that’s right, let’s move Pedroia to short and find a subpar second baseman to fill in. I can just imagine the conversation that went on, “Dustin Pedroia please report to the front office.” Theo: “Hey Peddy, we got some new plans for the team, how would you like to play short stop full time?” Dustin: “Yeah sure but why me?” Theo: “Well Dustin that is very simple, I missed the boat and am struggling to even pull a mediocre team together.” Dustin: “Oh that’s okay, just wondering.” Theo: “That reminds me, I’ve got some great plans for next offseason, I know 09 was a dud and I can never seem to find my checkbook, but just wait till 2012 and 2013!” I guess the curse of the “Great Garciaparra” continues.