A Lesson from Josh Hamilton

"now you have been set apart"

1 Corinthians 6:11

Here's the thing about being a baseball fan, at least for me:  it's not the players, it's the teams.  I think it was comedian Jerry Seinfeld who said that we don't root for the people, we root for the laundry.  The guy on the other team is the "enemy" until he gets traded to your team ~ puts on your team's uniform ~ and then you cheer him on.  It's not the New York Yankees I hate, it's their laundry, according to Seinfeld.  {Also, please note that when I say "hate" I don't really mean "hate".  It's just an expression.  I believe very strongly in "love thy neighbor".  Even if thy neighbor is a Yankee...}

But even though it's the laundry we love, there is usually a guy or two wearing that laundry, that we like just a little bit more than the other guys.  Maybe we like his achievements, or his work ethic, or that he went to the same college we did.  Lots of reasons.

Well, my Amazing Boy loves baseball.  As you may have noticed through this blog... And he's got a few favorite teams, but one of them is the Texas Rangers.  And one of his favorite players wearing the Texas Ranger laundry, is Josh Hamilton. 

from Wikipedia

Josh Hamilton is a great hero for a boy to have.  He's a hard-working and accomplished baseball player who is open about his faith, but also about his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction. 

Hamilton's substance-abuse troubles stretched from 2001-2005.  He was clean until 2009, when he stumbled, and again in February of this year.  I think he is still to be greatly admired for his attitude and his openness about his struggles, and for trying to educate others about drugs and alcohol. 

And therein lies today's lesson. In a recent interview about his lapse a few months ago, Hamilton was asked how his slip-up had happened, and I thought his answer was very instructive.   He said his relapse was prefaced by the thought, "Why can everybody else do it, and I can't?"

The hard fact for him ~ for anyone who has beaten drugs or alcohol ~ is to remember that they are not like everyone else.   For them, substance is their weakness, and it always will be, and that means they have to stay away from it; to be set apart from it.  

For each of us, it's something different, but for each of us, it's something.  We simply cannot be like everyone else, and still be true to who He has called us to be.  Anyone who doesn't care about sin, and its impact on their life, is going to do plenty of it.  Christians cannot be like that.  There are things that are sins, and things that will lead to sins, and you can't be any part of them, even if "everybody else" is.  It's hard, sometimes.  But it's true. 

We don't want to be like "them"; we want to be like Him.

~ "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, 

   holy, acceptable to God" ~

Romans 12:1