The Practice

Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
Philippians 4:7-9

"People who write about spring training not being necessary have never tried to throw a baseball." Sandy Koufax, Hall of Famer

Across the street, there's a flurry of activity that I haven't seen in months. Little League baseball is back! A couple dozen little boys are working out by throwing the baseball around and going through some of those practice drills that Fred McGriff used to talk about in the "Dynamic Baseball Training" video infomercials.

It's the same every year. The coach stands at home plate and starts hitting the baseball to boys in position on the field. "Take one" he says, and strikes the ball. It skips to the shortstop who fields it and throws it on to the first baseman. "Take two" he calls, and the ball heads toward third. The third baseball scoops it and fires to the second baseman who turns and throws to first.

I've watched that sequence literally hundreds of times as a player, coach, and now fan.

Wouldn't you think they could come up with something new? Something relevant? This same old same old is just, well.. old.

No. There are skills and routines that are necessary to play the game well, and they can only be learned by practicing them.

Here on the church side of the street, it's very much the same.

We have the same Bible we've had for a long time. The words of Jesus are meant for us to read, to digest, and to put into... practice. It's only by doing that every single day, that we can grow mature in our faith.

Grace and peace,

David

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