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Christians are like Champions:
In 2008 I took a team of 9-10 year old baseball player to our sub district tournament. We had a pretty good team that year. I didn't think we were good enough to win the State Championship, but I knew we could win our sub district, and thought we could win district. If we could do that you never know what could happen at the State Tour. We drew Metter for the first round. We had beaten them 3 times earlier that year, and they were the best team over there besides us. We jumped out to a 6 run lead in the 1st inning. I thought we were on our way. At the end of the game we lost 9-6. We played 2 more games and went home. This team did not have the heart, or the work ethics to be a champion.
Two years later I had the opportunity to coach, basically the same group of boy in 11-12 live pitch. The group was much more season at this time. Most of them had played some travel ball, Middle School, and league ball. There mind set on baseball had changed. They realized that to be a champion you had to do more than just go through the motions. You had to work daily on your game, and prepare yourself mentally for the challenges ahead. We walked through our sub district undefeated. We played our first 2 games in district against Dodge, and Screven counties. Both of these games we were the home team. Both of these game we went into the bottom of the last inning losing by 1 run with 2 outs and nobody on base. In both of these games we tied our opponent and went into extra inning. We won both of these games in the bottom of the 8th inning. We went on the win the championship game 16-12. 2 weeks later we went to the State Tournament and finished 3rd. Not bad for a bunch of kids that only 2 years earlier didn't have the heart or desire to be winners, much less champions.
My walk with God has been much like this teams walk with baseball. I have always been a Christian, but I always thought that being a Christian meant being a good person, and going to church on Sundays. I didn't have the heart or the work ethics to be a Christian. After I went on my Walk this past spring, I realized that it takes a commitment to be a good Christian. It takes daily devotions, studying, and a different mindset. I had not had this mindset in the past, but I do now. You can't be the Christian God wants you to be by living a good life and going to church on Sunday's. Just as Morgan Freeman said in the movie Shawshank Redemption "Get busy living, or get busy dying." There is no middle ground here. God wants us to grow in our faith, and our knowledge of his word.
Not everyone has the ability to be a great baseball player, but everyone has the ability to be a great Christian.
-Greg Woolard
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