Have you ever been to a professional baseball game? I went to my first baseball game when I was in college in Chicago. It was the Cubs, at Wrigley Field, and I was instantly hooked. But it’s not the sport or the players that drew me in; it was two other things. First I loved the crowd. I’m a people watcher and other than the airport there is nowhere in life where you get such a diversity of people in one place all interacting with each other. I could sit and watch the crowd at a game all day long. But secondly, and more importantly, I love the food. When we get to heaven and we sit down to the great feast, I’m convinced that there will be ballpark food served at the banquet. At my wedding Julie had charge of everything but put me in charge of the food. And so at our wedding reception we had ballpark food, corndogs, soft pretzels, cotton candy, nachos, and everything else wonderful in the world.
I was reading Proverbs 4 this morning and it brought to my mind an experience I once had at a baseball game. I had spent the first two innings wading through all the wonderful food options and was now returning to my seat with the bounty that would last me at least until the seventh inning stretch. As I was working my way down the row the Cubs made a good play and the crowd leapt to their feet. With this about a quarter of my Dr. Pepper splashed out of my cup onto the people around me. But this is nothing new to baseball fans; they were just excited for their Cubbies. I made the rest of the way to my seat, giving high-fives, and fist bumps along the way. When I finally sat down I found that I had lost almost half my drink. As I looked back down the row I saw people drying their shirts and pants from all the Dr. Pepper I had spilled along the way.
In Proverbs 4:23 is says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”[1] What is in our heart overflows into our life, and what is in our life overflows on to the people around us. The Christian life is not lived in stated beliefs. It is easy to talk about beliefs, it is easy to plan and carry out certain actions. If we want to really see what our life is about, bump into something and see what spills out. I would say that the true measure of our Christian life is not in our actions as much as it is in our reactions. We live our Christian life in our responses. We say we trust God, but then we bump into a hard economy. We say we love others, but then we bump into a conflict. We are defined by our attitudes (the beliefs of our heart) and at no time are our true attitudes displayed more clearly than when we are reacting to something unexpected. In speaking about attitudes Paul says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” [2] When I am walking through life bumping up against others, both in good and bad situations, what spills out of my life often comes from the first half of Paul’s list and not the second. How about you? When you get a promotion what spills out? Pride or gratefulness? When someone disagrees with you, what spills out? Defensiveness or compassion? When you bump into life, what spills out?
So very true! I bumped into a situation and what spilled out was anger and impatience, but what also spilled out was a determination to not give up, and had I given up, I would not have seen God do something wonderful in that situation. God really taught me a lesson that day.
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