Tonight I reached the pinnacle of my softball coaching career. No, my team didn't win the championship although they did win the game they played. No, we didn't break any records or set new standards of excellence for the under-10 Sun Prairie girls softball league. What did happen was one of our players got her first hit of the season and was rewarded by her parents with ice cream! Woo Hoo!
Savannah came to us with absolutely no experience or knowledge of softball. She was a late addition to the team because her parents recently moved here and had missed the deadline. At her first practice, she couldn't throw, catch, hit, or field. She knew how to put on her stiff, brand new softball glove and that was about it. But over the course of the last several weeks, my assistant coach and I poured our lives into her. We worked with her in one on one situations. We had her try different positions in the field. We gave her opportunity after opportunity to learn and she soaked it up. Her parents also worked with her. They spent a ton of time playing catch and teaching her how to hit. She told me this evening that they even spent all of Father's Day at the diamond working on her hitting. And tonight it paid off. With us clinging to a one run lead and runners in scoring position, she drove a ball right up the middle into the outfield.
The crowd roared. Savannah grinned. She high-fived me so hard it made my hand sting. In that moment you could tell she had "arrived". She no longer thought of herself as a girl trying hard to learn how to play softball...she was now a "softball player."
So tonight I am reflecting on what God has taught me through Savannah. First of all, faith is something that is caught more than taught. The reality is that I gave Savannah all the tips she could handle about hitting. I told her to keep her eye on the ball. To balance her stance. To keep her back elbow high. But until she put it all together and that bat made contact, it didn't matter. Our faith is like that. It is meant be experienced. Not that learning isn't important, it is, but the reality is our lives have to make "contact" with God and with the world God is desperately reaching out to if we are to understand what faith is all about.
Second, the effort has to be there. Savannah has spent countless hours practicing in order to get better. She has pulled her mom, who up until recently was nine months pregnant, outside to throw her the ball. As I mentioned above, she pulled her dad out onto the diamond for Father's Day. She has asked me and my assistant coach to work with her before and after practices and games. She clearly has thrown herself into becoming a better softball player. Growing in faith is very much the same. The Bible talks about us "working out our salvation with fear and trembling". Jesus tells us that unless we lose our lives for his sake we will never find them. James tells us that faith without works is dead. Growing in faith and becoming more faithful disciples requires all that we have and all that we are.
Third, Savannah would be nowhere without community. Her mom and dad. Her sister. Her teammates. Her coaches. She is surrounded by a network of people dedicated to her growth as a softball player. We all need that kind of community. We all need people in our lives who are committed to our spiritual growth and maturity.
You know, I don't know where our team will go from here. I don't know if we will win any more games or the end of the season tournament or the league championship. I don't know if we will set any scoring records or place any more kids on the all-star team. I don't even know if Savannah will get another hit...although I am pretty sure she will! What I do know is that there is a young 10 year old girl heading to bed with a smile on her face, joy in her heart, and a tummy full of ice cream. Can life get any better than this?
Great stuff, Doug! Encouraging to catch up with a piece of your story. Let's skype it up again here soon.
Posted by: Ryan | June 29, 2009 at 09:40 AM