For Love of the Game

Every summer day I come home these neighborhood boys are playing baseball in a nearby yard.  Their dedication and passion bring back some sweet memories for me.  I relish watching them play.  Backyard baseball is a dying sport.  Their passion for the game is rare for their demographic.   Most kids have moved inside to online games played on tablets/iPads, Xbox, PlayStation, or they spend so much time in camps, training and being part of a traveling team in a single sport that they don't have time to just "play" in the yard.


My generation of boys hated to be inside in the summer.  It killed us if we had to play inside on a rainy day.  There were too many home runs to hit, balls to catch, baskets to shoot, or hook routes to run.  We played baseball, basketball and football like we were Joe Namath, Bob Gibson and Wilt Chamberlain.  Our parents would have to call us in for lunch and dinner because we spent so much time playing outside.

David, Brian, Tim, DeWayne, Scott, Robbie and I played wherever and whenever we could.  We were baseball crazy.  Not only could we play we knew the stats of all the Big Leaguer's and it wasn't from the Internet.  We got the stats off their baseball cards.  When we weren't playing we were trading and collecting cards of our favorite players like: Pete Rose, Hammerin' Hank, Seaver, Carlton, the Yaz,  Maury Wills, Frank Robinson, Willie Stargell, Clemente, George Brett, Rollie, Catfish and many more.

We road our bicycles everywhere.  Baseball gloves were strapped on the handlebars as we went from one end of the neighborhood to the other.  Of all the games we played one was constant for us and it was baseball.  It was true and pure.  When there weren't enough to play a game we would play catch, or a game of "hotbox" pretending we were chasing down a runner in a big league game.  Other days we would chase fly balls in the outfield as one of us would hit.  It was a simpler time.

The game always brought us back for another day.  What brings you back for another day?  Your faith, family, job, or a place of service?  Like the boys in the backyard who wake up every summer day chomping to play ball, what burns in your belly that can only be satisfied through that one thing?

For Christ-followers this is about purpose.  Our purpose enables us to make God known through whatever we do.  The Apostle Paul got this concept when he wrote in Colossians 3:23-24-

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.  You are serving the Lord Christ.

What brings you back every day?