“No,” you say. Are you sure?
Even if you are not a baseball or sports fan, you may have heard or read that Roger Clemens has legal problems because it is alleged that he lied to Congress under oath, a deed frowned upon by the population on The Hill.
Clemens was the recipient of the Cy Young Award, given to the best pitcher in each league, a number of times. That is the highest award a pitcher can receive. Sosa and McGuire drew people to baseball parks by putting on a seemingly amazing display of homerun hitting. (There is also another baseball player who later broke McGuire’s record, but my opinion is that he was so obvious in his use of “enhancing substances” that he does not belong in this reflection.)
While these players were breaking records, making millions, and receiving standing ovations all was not as it appeared – for their records were not their own, their accomplishments not their own accomplishments – they were using performance-enhancing substances. Their deeds and awards were illegitimate. We, and more importantly they, will never know what they really could have accomplished.
On the other hand, the day-to-day baseball player who played every game clean of foreign substance but who didn’t make headlines, who wasn’t on talk shows, who didn’t make millions in advertising endorsements; that player knows what he himself actually did and he need not second guess himself in terms of playing the game clean and honestly – at least as honestly as possible in a game that encourages the stealing of bases.
Paul writes to Timothy, “…if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.”
Clemens won prizes, but did he really? Where are those prizes now? They may be in his trophy case, but the luster is gone and no polish can remove the tarnish.
But what about us? When Jesus greeted Nathaniel He said, “Behold an Israelite in whom is no guile.” Can Jesus say that about me? Can He say it about you?
Roger Clemens used substances to enhance his performance, to make himself better than he really was. Do we employ ruses and devices to make ourselves appear other than who we are? Do we present tainted testimony to the world and to heaven? Are there trophies in our lives, despite their glistening appearance, that we know are tarnished?
Our economic system is largely based on appearance – marketing it is termed – substance matters little, inducement to purchase is everything. Our political system pays spin doctors more than real doctors are often paid – healing public opinion is of more value than healing a broken body.
Analyzing spin and often applauding it has become a national sport, and it has given us all a license to lie, cheat and steal – we do not tell the truth, we rationalize it away; we cheat whenever we fraudulently represent anything, including ourselves, as other than it is; and we steal when we take that which is not ours – the truth – and pervert it and twist it to our own ends.
What is there in my life that is not what it appears to be? What is there in your life that is not what it appears to be?
Roger Clemens can be a good reminder to us all that one day all will be revealed – better to deal with it today before God.
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Yahweh, my rock and my Redeemer,” Psalm 19:14.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way,” Psalm 139:24
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