Distractions

It’s a great time of the year here in the States. That’s because it’s baseball season. The crack of the bat can be heard all around the country as our favorite teams take the field for another great year of looking forward to winning the World Series. (Although my team that I have followed for years hasn’t won that in over 100 years!)

There is an apocryphal story told about Hank Aaron, one of the greatest home run hitters of all time. He came up to the big leagues in the early 1950’s. As a rookie, he made his first trip into storied Yankee Stadium to play a great New York Yankee team. The Yankee catcher at that time was the great Yogi Berra. Yogi was noted for his chatter behind home plate in an attempt to distract the batter from hitting the ball.

When Hank Aaron came up to bat the first time Yogi began his chatter, telling him between pitches that he was holding the bat all wrong and as a result he wasn’t going to be able to hit the ball. Yogi kept telling him, “Hank, you’re holdin’ that bat all wrong. You ain’t going to hit nothing because you can’t read the label on that bat. You got to be able to read that label to hit the ball.” And so it went for several pitches.

Then all of a sudden Hank swung the bat and connected for a 400 ft. home run, sending the baseball deep into the left field stands. As the story is told, as Hank crossed home plate he was heard to say to Yogi, “I didn’t come here to read.”

My point: we live in a world filled with constant distraction. There is a whole lot of worldly chatter all around us – chatter that seeks to distract us from the mission to which God has called each of us. Yes, there is much to distract us from being a fully focused, fully devoted, fully committed follower of Jesus Christ.

I don't know what your distractions may be. I know what mine are. Let us remember that we have been bought with a price of the life of the Son of God; we have been called to fulfill God’s plan for our lives, not our own. We have been called to die that we might truly live. And there are many distractions in the world around us that seek to keep us from fulfilling our destiny. Let not the distractions of the world’s chatter deter us from the mission, service, calling, and destiny God has for us.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, forgive me for listening to chatter that is not of You. Help me to hear Your voice in my life, and only Your voice. Give me grace and strength to be the person You have created me to be that I might live faithfully in Your presence, in Jesus’ name, Amen.