Take Me Out to the Ball Game and why I think Jesus must be a Cubbie

I watch a lot of TV over the summer. I am not ashamed to admit it. Tonights menu included Adventures of an Incurable Optimist on TLC. Michael J Fox is the host. He is one of my idols, and since I have been called optimistic to the point of annoying, I knew this show would be right up my alley. Add in a bit about baseball, and I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

Little known fact- My list of dream jobs has included sportscaster, sports photographer, and for a fleeting moment before I realized I had the athletic talent of a thimble, pro athlete. Actually, I still want to be a sportscaster or sports photographer. But reality is knocking.

One of the segments on the show was about the optimism of the Chicago Cubs. Being a Marlins fan, I endure endless ridicule for my loyalties. Daily heartache. Crushing defeats. But night after blown-in-the-ninth-inning-loss night, I go to sleep and thank God (in my optimistic way) that He did NOT make me a Cubs fan. As of today, the Cubs are in a four way tie for 16th place in the MLB with an average of .511. Respectable, but it would take a miracle for them to reach the Big Kahuna. And when October fatefully rolls its fatefull self around and the Cubs are left again empty handed, it will have been a grand total of 101 years since they held glory in their cursed hands.

If I wanted you to get bored reading this, I would include a paragraph or two on the poor cursed Cubbies. But it is not my intention. Of you really care, here is a link you shall find interesting (Alexis- you should read it, remember how fascinated you were with all the superstition surrounding baseball?)

http://www.cubbiesbaseball.com/goats.htm

If there is one thing I am not, it is a fairweather fan. The definition of a fairweather fan is someone who gets interested when a team is winning and drops relations once they begin to stink worse than the Beaty Towers garbage chute. Although my sweet lovings with the Marlins quite accidently began in 2003, which happened to be the second and last time they won the World Series, I have since cheered my way through five and a half seasons which ranged from almost decent to absolutely abysmal. And yet I hold my head high, wave my Billy the Marlin flag, wear my Cabrera jersey (although he has becomg a dirty rotten Detroit stinking Tiger traitor since my obsession with him commenced) and root root root for the home team.

But I do not think I could ever be a Cubs fan. Defeat and dissapointment year after year after year. I would hope that I would have the spirit to withstand over a century of besmirched records, curses, scandals, and heartbreak. If you read the article or are a die-hard Marlins, Cubs, or ESPN fan, you will know of the 2003 scandal. It was game 6 of the NL championship playoffs, Cubs vs. my very own Fish. It was the Cubs year. Magic filled the Windy City and the whole nation seemed to rally around the Cubs. The great Sammy Sosa and his boys were working every field like they were meant to be there. The Cubs were winning the series 3-2 and were a mere 5 outs away from their first trip to the world series in almost 6 decades when Luis Castillo hit a foul ball into left field, totally reachable by Mosies Alou, which would have resulted in a much needed out, when a fan, poor Steve Bartman, reached out and caught the ball. One thing led to another, and a few weeks later I spent my first ever high school homecoming dance in the courtyard with my friend Kristen (with whom I credit my obsession), listening to a radio (oh yes, I am that nerdy) with pure joy as the Marlins beat the NY Yankees in the World Series in 6 games

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Bartman_incident

Ouch. It got me to thinking, how can millions of people endure such bitter, painful, dissapointment day after day, year after year? Then I realized there is someone who endures a lot more heartache than even the most seasoned Cubs fan.

Segway to God.

If Jesus was a baseball fan, I am pretty sure he would be okay with being a Cubs fan, because really, we are all like the Cubs. Follow me here. We constantly screw absolutely everything up. But Jesus doesn't care. He still loves us just the same. He is the ultimate fan, the fan who ACTUALLY died for his team. Not just metaphorically. God is an optimist. He relishes in every single victory we get. It doesnt matter if that victory is the World Series trophy. That victory could be winning a game or as simple as getting a strike on the batter you are up against. And when we blunder, whether it is missing a catch or losing the most important game of the season, He says "It's okay. I still love you. Here is another chance" Time and time again. A real fan would never say to their team "you better make it up to me in the next inning/tomorrow/next season." You love the team. As Christians we should do the same. Relish EVERY single victory, no matter how minor. And for every mistake we make or others make, let it be a chance for forgiveness. Loyalty, my friends, should never lie with the highest bidder. Loyalty is derived from the one who sacrifices the most. And no greater sacrifice will ever be made than the one that has already been made by the Maker Himself. You want to shock people?. Be quick to praise, but even quicker to forgive. People will notice. And people will wonder. And in the end, hearts will be changed. What greater victory is there than that?

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends"
John 15: 12-13

United We Stand

Reader be warned, this may be long.

First of all, the time on this post is correct. It is 5:34 AM right now. In order to get rid of a nasty migraine that has plagued me for two days now, I inadvertantly took migraine medicine with a large amount of caffeine in it.

Fourth of July recap- went over to Jessi's. Ate FAR too much grilled food. Watched National Treasure 2, which we deemed the most patriotic movie in her cabinet. Drove to the intracoastal. Saw AMAZING fireworks. Waited 40 minutes for the trolley to take us back to the parking lot, which was two miles away. Went back to Jessi's. Ate a lot of watermelon. Watched Beetlejuice (not exactly patriotic, but fun nonetheless).

So I just had another one of those God moments. Where out of nowhere, the random thoughts coursing through my brain are brought together by the very least expected things. The book I am reading with Sharon (The Unexpected Adventure by Mark Mittelberg and Lee Strobel -read it) has got me thinking a lot about our "mission." The Great Commission and all that jazz. Since today (I guess yesterday now) was Fourth of July, there were a lot of patriotic things on TV and in the newspaper. Including things about 9/11, which made me think of the slogan United We Stand. I got to thinking about things in the past that people have become "united" on and how much of an effect we can have when we unite. LiveStrong. the Red campaign. The relief efforts from the 2004 tsunami. Hurricane relief efforts (which my own family benefitted from- free ice after Wilma). But I couldn't really tie my thoughts together.

So thats what has been on my mind all day.

I have been in bed since 1230 trying to fall asleep. I tried everything. TV. Reading. A cup of hot tea. So I went back to TV. It is VERY rare that I have the TV on at 5 am. Actually I don't know if I ever have, unless I was waking up uber early for something. Slim pickings. Many many informercials. If it isn't an infomercial, it is most likely boring or disturbing. I will never EVER put Spike on in the middle of the night again. I was just hoping for CSI.

I settled on ESPN, SportsCenter is always entertaining. But after 25 minutes on coverage of Steve McNairs death (my prayers go out to his family, but the coverage was speculative and spotty), I flipped to Disney Channel. Lilo and Stitch was on (the TV show, not the movie) If you haven't seen the show, the premise is that the other experiments end up on Earth and Lilo and pals have to corral them and find good jobs for them before the bad guys use them for bad things. If you haven't seen the movie, we are no longer friends.

I missed the first 20+ min of the episode, but from what I gathered, the alien featured in this one made clones of any other alien it touched. So the bad guys used him to make armies. But it was all in Lilo's plans for him to make huge armies, because the more copies were made, the less powerful they were.

Lo and behold, Lilo and Stitch triumph. Lilo's closing line you ask? "United we stand. Divided? We are nothing but a whole bunch of weaklings"

NO LIE.

I almost died. I was like Whoa God. I gotcha.

You see, that is more perfect than any other saying out there. I tend to think United We Stand, Divided We Fall. But we can never truly fall if we have Jesus in our heart. We can get up and continue the fight alone. But when we are alone, we reveal our weaknesses. We all struggle. No one struggle is worse or better than another. We are all unique in our own weakness. But together we can be unstoppable. We compensate for each others weaknesses. Can you imagine if for one day every single Christian did NOTHING but Evangelize? What could we accomplish?

Okay. It is now 6:23. The sun has risen, and I think the coffeepot just started kickin. I am going to try and sleep.