Taking It Seriously

"observe carefully all His commandments"

Deuteronomy 28:1

Well, it's autumn.  I love autumn.  I think I've mentioned that a time or two.  I hope you're enjoying it as much I am!   I'll enjoy it a little more next week, though.  All the creepiness and ghouliness and spookiness of Halloween takes some of the joy out of October for me.  But I do love the candy!

One of the things I love about autumn is baseball.  The playoffs and World Series are on TV, and my Amazing Boy is playing Fall Ball.   Fall Ball is Little League, but not as "official" as the season in the spring, that leads to the Little League World Series.

Fall Ball is much more relaxed.  It's about instruction and improvement.  It's more low-key, and they emphasize fun, and downplay competition.  I once saw a coach come out to rearrange a batter's hands in the middle of an at-bat, and that was the opposing coach! 

But we have an umpire this year who is so impressive.  He is very nice, and jocular with the coaches and the boys.  But he is just as serious about his job as if it where the Major Leagues.  His shoes are always shined, he knows the rules, and he is authoritative when making calls. 

And he dusts off home plate the proper way.  Did you know there's a right and a wrong way to dust off home plate?  Well, he knows.

The fact that these are just 12-year-olds, the fact that this is just Fall Ball, is not stopping him from doing everything the right way.  That's a great example, for the boys, and for me.  I can't think that God's expectations for me are any less than for anyone I might read about in Scripture; any different than any instruction He gave in His Word.  There are no "professionals" and "amateurs" in God's kingdom.

Who amazes you, spiritually speaking?  Moses?  Paul?  Mother Theresa?  Billy Graham?   Think you can't compare?  Well you're right; don't.   But know that you take instruction, and inspiration from the same source.

~ "The secret things belong to the Lord our God,

but those things which are revealed belong to us

and to our children forever,

that we may do all the words of this law" ~

Deuteronomy 29:29