Whiteboards, The Cincinnati Reds, and God's Lessons
Thu, October 18, 2007 at 1:50PM 
I share this little story about my love for the Cincinnati Reds to prove that our everyday lives are whiteboards in God’s classroom. The Sunday School whiteboards around Lexington Baptist Church are less than pristine. In fact, they’re marred by Expo scribble from weekly lessons. If you look closely you may see faded prayer requests, Bible references or fragmented outlines. Frankly, I love it, and imagine that Jesus used parables because he didn’t have a whiteboard. (I know, I know, the rest of you ditched dustless chalk and dry erase markers to sell your ministry to Microsoft years ago.) But there is something to the residue of a whiteboard that reminds me of how God gets his point across. If you look closely I believe you’ll discover the compound of lesson after lesson that God has taught through your Monday through Friday, and occasionally Saturday, life.
My Beloved Reds
Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel to Cincinnati, Ohio to watch my beloved Reds play the final week of their season. They are the oldest team in baseball (est. 1869), winners of 5 world series (1919, 1940, 1975, 1976, 1990), and my team every since God providentially drafted me onto my Reds little league baseball team. The trip from Lexington, VA to Cincinnati, OH meanders through funny little towns like Hurricane and Frasiers Bottom, West Virginia, but all 300 miles were worth it to see the Reds take the field at the Great American Ballpark.
I really didn’t need extra motivation for the trip, but it just so happened that Ken Griffey Jr. was approaching career home run #600. It just dawned upon me that God was putting all the right pieces together. Griffey was playing great. My tickets were ordered, and I could see God’s hand putting me in the right seat on the right night to catch Griffey’s 600th home run ball. Hey, if I’m going to get a ball from the field it might as well be worth something. If God’s on your side make you dreams big, right? So I shared this “prayer request” with our Sunday school class, family, friends and checked viable auction sites to pawn the ball off after my moment of glory.
Have you ever been completely confident in God’s leading only to watch it completely melt away through time, circumstances and people? Well, if you have then you already know the life lesson God was about to write on my whiteboard. Within weeks the Reds had lost 6 straight, Ken Griffey Jr. suffered a season ending injury finishing the year with 593 career homeruns, and all hope was lost that my fantasy would become reality.
God Giggled in Heaven
Without any hope in my original plan, which is normally God’s way, I went to the games anyway. Friday night I’m sitting on row N down the first base side. Before the game I took Chloe (our 9 month old daughter) down to the front row to get a better look at the field. We’re enjoying the pre-game festivities with 200 or 300 other fans lining the field. The players were warming up and the cheerleaders where shooting t-shirts into the crowd. I set Chloe, our 18 pound bundle of love, on the block wall that separated us from the field. Both hands on her, of course, but relaxed enough to rest my arm. We were still separated by a padded wall and field tarp, yet the lovely security guard took notice of my reprehensible actions. He stopped all the entertainment to reprimand me for setting my daughter on the wall. I felt like Michael Jackson dangling my child over a balcony. I was embarrassed to no end, yet I think I could hear God giggling in heaven. Here is a principle: whenever a cute baby 
(and mine is amazingly cute) is around they elicit continuous attention and in my case pity. The cheerleaders came over and handed Chloe a pompom and a soft baseball toy. The lady next to me reassured me that I hadn’t done anything wrong. But, low and behold, that hatefully old security guard must have felt ashamed of himself because he went into the Reds clubhouse and emerged with a game-used official baseball handed it to me.
The Cubs beat the Reds. The Reds didn’t come close to making the post-season. I’ll have to wait till spring training. But I got a baseball, and it was better than catching it in the stands because I learned again that God often gives us what we desire, but not in the way or time that we long for it. Often His blessings come in unexplainably and unpredictable ways. The process is nearly as important as the product. Teaching us trust, humility and grace is always part of his lectures.
Reader Comments (1)
I hope that the security guard doesn't read this. He is described as, and I quote, "hatefully old. . . " I like reading about this even better than hearing it first hand.