I had the opportunity to attend two baseball games this week, the Lowell Spinners and the Mill City All-Americans. If you've never head of the MCAA'S, they're a college level team that plays in south Lowell and have only been around for 4 years. Regardless, since both are amateur teams with amateur players they will fit in nicely with my point today.

I noticed at both games the batting average of the players as they come up. If a player is green, and has never had an at-bat before in his life, I believe his average is either 0 or 1.000. If, in his first try, he gets a hit I am pretty confident his average is 1.000, because he is perfect. One at-bat, and one hit. I suppose if he quit right there and never played the game again he would retire with that perfect record, but it's not very exciting. Much more exciting is the player that's been around for 10 or 15 years and has an average of .400 or even .600. That means after countless tries to hit the ball, they generally get a hit about every other time. There is one thing they will never be, though, and that is 1.000 again. With these amateur players, though, it's not terribly uncommon for someone to have 3 hits in their first 4 at bats, and have a stunning .750 average. But as you can figure out for yourself it really means little until they have some depth of experience.

My observation from this is the idea that once you mess up you can never be perfect. My son Dave is about to go into High School, and his GPA is 0. He has no credits, and no grades. But the instant that first semester is over he's gong to have an average. Let's just put a huge streeeeeetch on our imagination and pretend he gets 4 A's and I B. Pretty good! But not perfect. And in fact, no matter what, he's blown his chance for leaving school with a perfect score. Some of his classmates will get all A's, for every year, and one or two of them will probably end up with a perfect 4.0 (that's the best it used to be, a perfect A average). Even if Dave gets all A's from then on, the best he could do is 3.999, know what I mean?

So does that mean he shouldn't even try, considering the long odds that he will leave school with a perfect score? Well, I myself got into the top ten in my class because someone else got lazy. This person had mostly all A's until their senior year, and then picked up some C's. I had started out slowly, with a C (and even one D!) my freshman year, but I got straight A's after that. And so when this person slipped, I stepped up in their place. I chased them in the class ranking for 3 years with no hope of catching up, until they gave me the opportunity.

And that's what it's all about. Opportunity. Do you shirk it? Or embrace it? The ball player risks his current average every time he steps to the plate, yet he could gain ground if he succeeds. When we try to teach others the gospel, we could suffer loss or we could make gains for the cause of Christ. Check out I Corinthians 3 and see for yourself. So, since we could suffer loss, does that mean we shouldn't try? Then we are unworthy to be called Christians! Or do we teach another, find success, and then rest on that one "soul win" so our record stays perfect? Is that the perfection God wants from us?

Mr Mo did not like last week's bulletin. Not long ago, he said he liked every one I had written so far. But now I will never be 1.000 again. I could tell you the sun was in my eyes or I slipped on the grass. But those are just excuses. The reality is I botched the play. So it's time for me to get up, brush off the dirt, and get back in there. Opportunities come and go. Friends, every chance I get, I will be in there swinging. And every so often, I connect!

Randy