Monday, June 23, 2008

don't you know it's hard?

yesterday, after i invested an extra hour and a half in the game, basically ignoring my wife and child in the process, the cardinals were finally vanquished by a youkilis homer in the bottom of the thirteenth. when the cardinals survived inning opening doubles by the sox in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth, i feared that losing would be a tough blow. however, although i might have uttered an unholy word when youk's ball cleared the centerfield fence, i was able to let go of the game surprisingly quickly and rest in the fact that we won the series and took the sox to the limit.

now that we are almost three full months in, i am ready to admit that this is one of my favorite cardinals teams of all-time. these boys aren't as talented as the brewers, don't have hear the budget of the, admittedly impressive, scrubs and their pitching staff couldn't be worse off if they had spent the first quarter of the season in abu graib instead of extended spring training. yet, these boys have scrapped and clawed their way eleven games over .500 and they are currently sitting in the wildcard catbird seat. much like the yankees of the mid-90s, yet with far, far less talent, these boys have shown they know how to grind.it.out. i think tony la russa, dave duncan and all the rounders such as ludwick, schumaker and molina should all be issued wallets that read - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - if you know what i mean. these guys know the game is hard and they play it hard. if they were pilots, i'd say they were flying "ice cold with no mistakes."

i, on the other hand, am a candy ass who utilizes doubt, cynicism and resignation as a screen to filter the hard realities of life and hold out hope that life is going to become easier. just this weekend i read an interview with tim keller at christianity today, in which he states that Christ followers should not water down the demands and complications of the gospel lest we fail to let people know that "to be a Christian is going be very, very hard." for some reason, that odd little sentence attributed to keller really sliced me open.

to live a prayerful life is hard. to chose to serve instead of seeking to be served is hard. to believe that the poor are the rightful inheritors of the Kingdom is hard. to bind my desires for relevance and influence and lead them up to mount moriah is hard.

so today i'm trying to mind keller's wisdom and follow in the footsteps of aaron miles and my beloved boys of summer. it's far past time to set the user-friendly faith i've been trying to forge aside in order to follow in the hard footsteps of Jesus.

5 comments:

Pastor Phil said...

Wow,

You've got it bad. You even preach the Gospel with the Cards.

Good post bro.

Better loss though. ;-)

kristi said...

at church last sunday (gasp! yes, you heard that right!) the pastor was talking about counting the cost as a christian before committing to "follow me." he was saying that anyone can take jesus up on his free gift of salvation & grace, but it's much, much harder to actually try to follow in his footsteps.

interesting that you are saying the same thing. wonder what divine being is trying to hammer me over the head with this?

(can't really comment on the baseball part--but it's beautifully written.)

Dale said...

that's a great picture of john buck!!!

I'm sure the Royals will soothe your pain as the Cards come in to town this weekend looking to avenge the events of last week

g13 said...

of course i write this just before having one of the most frustrating afternoons in my quadrilateral life. i suspect that this post is the blog equivalent of praying for patience or contentment and i'm certain that i am often one dumb sonofabitch.

now, back to that hard stuff.

Smee said...

Oh! I should have remembered that you'd be especially interested in the Cards-Sox series... duh! :)

We first met TINO at one such game! It was magical...