A The Baptist Deacon

Okay, before you read too deep and say this is just another post on baseball how could this possibly tie into anything from God or the bible. You will just have to bear with me for a few moments. I promise God is going to tie this together.

I have known all week that I was going to write this I just didn’t have the words until this morning. I was also not as close to God this week as I should have been. As those of you that keep up with what I write know I am a volunteer baseball coach. You might want to click on this link to catch up: http://deaconfarley.christianblogsites.com/blog/post/2008/04/25/put-me-in-coach

My son Adam and I are nearing the end of our seventh season together. This year we moved up to “the Babe Ruth League” and we will be there for the next three seasons. The boy’s ages in this league range from 13 years old to 16 years old, with a pitching restriction on the 16’s.

Stay with me I am getting to the point. I have coached some very good Little League teams. Two of those teams won the League championship, one was a runner up.

This year the team I coached was an expansion team, which means I had to build the team from the ground up. I drafted ten boys. Three were fourteen years old the rest were 13’s (all of my 13’s made the all star team and I will tell you more later in this post). I had the youngest team in the league. The rest of the teams had a good balance of 14, 15 and 16 year olds.

There were several games where we were beat so bad that I didn’t even bother to look at the score, believe me those teams walked over us. Through all of the “spankings” we took, the boys never got down. They kept smiling and having fun. What’s more is they kept coming back even with impossible odds. We managed to win three games one (the last game of the regular season) against a good team, one of those that walked over us the first time we played them. A good sign for next year I hope. This has been the best team I have ever had the opportunity to coach beatings and all. I was blessed with and by this team this year. I also learned a very important “life lesson”.

Last Saturday we had a cookout for the team. I was given a card from one of my 13’s that really touched me. Before I tell you what was in the card I will tell you that this little boy has played ball the same amount of time in the same leagues with my son. I have never had the opportunity to coach him until this year. It became apparent at the first practice that he had been pushed to the side, played the minimum amount that the league required and he suffered. Please do not think that I am bragging I’m not. I worked with this little boy personally.  He improved very quickly and before you know it he was no longer a bench player, a sub but a starter and he was playing entire games.

I’m still getting to my point don’t leave you’ve made it this far you may as well stick it out until the end.

This year the league gave me the 13 year old All Stars, which is a traveling tournament team. I again had the responsibility of putting a team together. All the 13’s that were on my season team made it. That’s right the little boy that had been left out, pushed aside and left to learn what he could on his own made the team.

When I asked him in front of his mother to be a part of the tournament team I couldn’t tell you who was happier, his mother (who I thought was going to cry) him or me. I told him that I wanted him to be an alternate and that he might not see any playing time at all. His mother said that didn’t matter. That he had never been on a traveling team before and she was thankful that he made it, that someone actually took an interest in her son and made him feel like he was a part of a team.

We begin a double elimination tournament tonight in Livingston Tennessee. We are looking for a birth in the State tournament. You may have guessed this already but this little boy is going to start tonight and he earned it.

As I just said it is a double elimination tournament which means we are only guaranteed two games. We have prayed with or teams before each game for the last few years, we have never asked for a win, just help, strength and safety. I find myself today very excited and I don’t want it to end, not just for the sake of the little boy that has never been on a tournament team, but because I have really enjoyed being around this group of boys and there parents and I don’t want it to end… oh said that already. I have really been blessed this season.

I find myself asking God for more than two games this morning (which I believe we will get). I’m not asking to win the tournament, but if we do we as a team will praise God just the same as if we loose (which God showed me this morning we had not been doing). Help me pray for more that two games if that doesn’t seem selfish.

Now back to the card I received. Please don’t look at this as me bragging or showing off, I’m not, but I am extremely proud.  It was a thank you card with a bible verse in it. The verse if from Ephesians 1:16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; this is from the KJV version of the bible. The way it was written in the card is like this: I do not cease to give thanks for you and is from the RSV version, but it made its point.

The child’s mother wrote “It is a tremendous blessing when God puts someone in your childrens lives whom builds their confidence and inspires them! I thank God greatly for sending you our way!!! Thank you. Thank you… for everything!

Then the little boy wrote Thank you for being a good coach.

This card brought a tear to my eye when I read it. It made the last seven years as a coach worth it, even with disgruntled parents, (which I did not have this year) good teams and bad teams. Then God spoke to me and said much like the little boy who had been pushed aside Christian people are leaving young converts to Christ to learn what they can by themselves.  Ah the point at last. Do you try and help a young Christian learn, do you show them things by the way you live your life? Much the same way a non Christian looks at your life a young Christian will look at you as well. Are you confusing them or are you leading them in the path of righteous? This was a long post just to get to this I hope and pray you got a blessing from what was put on my heart.

God Bless you!

Did I tell you that I’m not ready for this season of ball to be over?

I am from Sparta Tennessee. It is a small town in the middle of the state East of Nashville and West of Knoxville.
I have been a Christian for twenty - one years. This does not mean that I am perfect just forgiven, saved by the wonderful grace of God.
I am married to a wonderful woman and we have four kids three boys and a little girl.
I am active in my community as well as in my church. I am currently serving as church clerk and treasurer. I was set aside for the office of Deacon and ordained in May of 2002.

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