Play Ball

When I first woke up Monday morning...this is what was on my mind!!! Playing ball...the picture in my mind was a baseball game...not a big major league game...but just a small little ball field and a metal backstop and some little bleachers for parents to sit on. Again...don't ask me why....the only sport that I even like is basketball...and that pretty much has to be the Lady Vols!!!! I've never, ever liked baseball, even though my Daddy did. He used to play softball with us down in a clearing in the woods behind our house that used to be our garden. The woods are gone now, but I can still picture it in my mind (what's left of it...my mind, I mean...sorry, just had to throw that in)!!! And....I got pretty good at shooting hoops when I was young...but...and I know I ramble...sorry 'bout that, too....but here is what I think prompted my train of thought (and, I know sometimes it seems more like a train wreck!!!). Yesterday, I wrote about how sometimes I think a person's testimony is just how they live their life...and that sometimes just being a faithful church member is enough.

Well....I still feel that way.

But....

do you ever feel like you are in the "game of life" and you're only a spectator...and not a participant. All those players on the field are getting all the attention and are in on all the action...and you're just sitting over on the bleachers watching the whole thing. A lot of you have small children....and they play sports....when they are playing do you sit quietly...or are you over there cheering and hooping and hollering and encouraging them? That's what those people in the bleachers are doing. That's what those people who faithfully attend church every time the doors are open...even though they might not hold a "position"...that's what they are doing. They are the cheerleaders...encouraging those who do feel the call to teach, preach, sing!!! Sending e-mails...mailing little cards, or notes...picking up the phone and saying "Hey, I missed seeing you at church Sunday"!! A lot of what many people do is private...remember what the Bible says about that:

That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:4 (KJV)

Same verse...different wording.....

Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. Matthew 6:4 (NLT)

(in other words...don't run around bragging on what you do for others)

I learned a long time ago that sometimes things are not what they seem....that sometimes when you think somebody is quiet, and shy, and aren't participating in anything much at church...they are keeping things going behind the scenes!!!

And...God is rewarding them for it!!!

P.S. to my prayer partner - I had already written this before our conversation yesterday afternoon....ain't God good?!?!? It's not odd...it's God!!!

In His love...and with mine!!!!