One of the neat things about baseball is that every batter fails more times than he succeeds. Yes, every batter fails more times than he succeeds. That means that the most successful batters in the history of the game failed more times than they succeeded. That means that the players who win the batting championships this year in the American and National Leagues will have failed more times than they succeeded.
Batting averages are a measure of a hitter’s consistency. A batting average of .200 means that the player gets a “hit” 2 out of 10 times at bat. A batting average of .300 means that a batter gets a hit 3 out of 10 times at bat. Get the idea? A .300 hitter is a star, especially if he can hit .300 year after year. But that also means that there are 7 out of 10 times at the plate when he doesn’t get a hit – he fails more times than he succeeds, and yet he is a star ballplayer.
The top lifetime batting average is held by Ty Cobb and is .367 – that means that Cobb failed more times than he succeeded, and yet he holds the highest lifetime batting average in baseball history.
There are some lessons for life here, including lessons for our life in Christ. To begin with, most people don’t try new things because they are afraid of failure; and many other people don’t try things over again if they have failed at them the first time or two. Most people would rather sit on the bench in the dugout rather than go up to the plate and try to make contact with the ball.
One of the greatest center fielders of all time, Willie Mays, made 12 straight outs when he first entered the Major Leagues, and though he steadily improved during the year he didn’t set the world on fire his first year in the league – but he went on to have a Hall of Fame career. Suppose his manager, Leo Durocher, had given up on him?
I think one reason people are afraid to try things and fail is the critical reaction they get from other people. Some families have a culture of criticism, some companies have a culture of criticism, and sad to say, far too many churches have a culture of criticism. These cultures watch people go up to the plate and rather than encouraging them, rather than rooting for their success, they actually want them to fail – especially if they don’t do things the way certain people think (know!) they should be done.
It is any wonder that so many cultures stagnate, and in stagnating resemble pools of water with no inlet or outlet? Is it any wonder that the Body of Christ as expressed in local churches often does not grow because its members are afraid to exercise their gifts and graces, they are afraid to learn and grow because of judgmental criticism?
We value efficiency while God values character and growth. Efficiency would say, “Let’s play something other than baseball, there are too many failures.” What that game would be I’m not sure, but you get the idea. Maybe they’d prefer a basketball game with the hoop 4 feet off the ground?
As a pastor, and as a business executive, I’ve always enjoyed seeing people try new things (well…mostly I’ve enjoyed it). And I’ve also valued failure for a couple of reasons. One reason is that it gives me an opportunity to encourage the person to try it again, or to try something else, to get back on the bicycle. Another reason I value failure is that it gives me an opportunity to guide the corporate or church culture away from criticism and into encouragement and affirmation. If others can see that failure is not the end of the world, if others can witness encouragement in the midst of failure, then maybe they too will get on the bicycle and try something new – maybe they’ll try that thing they’ve been dreaming of.
I’m reminded of the Apostle Peter. I think if he played baseball that he would be a catcher. Catchers have to be fiery team leaders, not afraid of staring at 100 MPH fastballs or leery of bats swinging over their heads; not afraid of base runners barreling into them trying to score a run. Peter made a number of “outs” in his life, he didn’t always get it right, and in fact one time he got it terribly wrong, the time he denied Christ with curses. But you know what? The old boy kept going up to the plate and Jesus stuck with him, Jesus kept saying in effect, “There’s the bat Pete, let’s give it another try.”
One time, when the crowds turned away from Jesus, Jesus asked the disciples, “Are you leaving me too?” And Pete replied, “Where are we gong to go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Peter was saying, “You are the only game for us. We’re not playing with anyone else. It’s your team or no team.”
Yes, Peter made his share of outs, but he also had some key hits. He cleared the bases when the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost (Acts 2); he knocked the Gentiles across home plate in the house of Cornelius (Acts 10); and he was man enough in Christ to acknowledge when he got picked-off base in Antioch (Galatians 2). And in the bottom of the 9th inning, when the game was on the line, Peter showed that he could not only live like Jesus, but that he could die like Jesus.
Pick up that bat lying next to you, go up to the plate, get in the game.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment