Baseball, Chickens, and Being Left-Handed

A few weeks ago Patrick and Alice on the Zuck Homstead decided they’d purchase some chickens for fresh eggs. They had chickens previously but predators got to be too much of a challenge. Seems like lots of critters enjoy chicken, with or without Colonel Sanders’s secret recipe.

Now I don’t know much about keep’n chickens. When Patrick and Alice and their young’ns were out of town a few weeks ago during Spring Break I made sure the chickens had scratch feed, mash feed, and water. That wasn’t too bad a chore. What was a chore was cleaning the chicken house, putting fresh bedding in and cleaning out possible compost-fertilizing material – not a pretty chore – but hey, the Bible says to love thy neighbor and the Revere family – well, they’re not just our neighbors they’re our friends, just like family – so what’s a little chicken chore between family?

Now like I said, I don’t know much about rais’n and keep’n chickens. But for you folks that do know about chickens, I direct your attention to the above photo. As you can tell there are four chickens. Four chickens eat’n the Revere’s food and drink’n the Revere’s water and liv’n in the Revere’s chicken coop. You’d think that four chickens could do better than one egg a day – at least I’d think so…even though I don’t know much about rais’n and keep’n chickens.

So when I found out that they were only producing one egg per day I wondered what the problem was. Were they union chickens and refusing to work until they negotiated a better contract? Were they Northern chickens refusing to work south of the Mason-Dixon line? Were they New York Yankee fans refusing to work for a Red Sox fan? (I am pleased to report that Mr. Revere is a Red Sox fan). There was some discussion about the lack of egg production.

Then yesterday as I was out on our lane pruning trees, Alice Revere stopped on her way out to run errands. She rolled down her car’s window and said,  "Well, we’ve figured out why we’re only getting one egg per day. Three of the chickens are roosters.”

Now as you know by now, I don’t know much about rais’n and keep’n chickens – but I do know that if you’ve got three roosters and one hen that that probably explains why you’re getting one egg per day.

And that got me to thinking about baseball and being left-handed, which I am. Just like those three roosters were being asked to play a position that they couldn’t possibly play, there are some positions in baseball that a left-hander can’t really play, most notably second-base and shortstop. And while I’ve been told that there have been left-handed third basemen, I’d put third base in that category too. You see, when those three positions field ground balls the majority of throws are made to first base. Whereas a right-handed fielder has a natural throw across his body to first base, a left-hander has to throw against his natural momentum, thereby losing precious seconds and also sacrificing accuracy. Having a left-hander at those three positions just isn’t efficient – you end up frustrating not only the player in question, but the team as a whole. (I wonder if the hen kept wondering why she was the only one doing the work?)

Psalm 139 teaches us that God made each one of us as unique individuals. We are hard-wired by God. Now while we can all learn things that might not be the most natural things for us to learn, and acquire skills that might not be the most natural for us to acquire, the fact remains that we still have hard-wired dispositions and talents. Learning how we are wired, and learning and appreciating how others are wired, can make life not only easier but also fun and exciting.

One of the primary New Testament images of the people of God is the Body of Christ. One body with many members. One people with many variations of gifts and graces. When we honor God in His people and when we honor people in God we open up possibilities for both individual and collective growth.

By the way – do any of y’all need a rooster?