WHAT DOES #19 SHOW US ABOUT A HEALTHY FAITH?

Yesterday came news that one of the greatest baseball players of any generation, Tony Gwynn, died at the age of 54. Without getting into a lot of details, I'll just say that he is considered one of the all-time greats because of his attention to detail and his consistency.

For his career, he batted .444 with the bases loaded. In 20 years, he struck out three times in a game once.  I could go on and on, but that gives you a glimpse at his remarkable accomplishments.

However, it wasn't his numbers that struck me as I listened to people memorialize him yesterday. No, what stood out to me was the stories about how he took batting practice before each game.  He had a specific routine where hit balls to the same place, working his way around the field, including working on the bunt. A former manager of his talked about going home one night after a game, passing a batting cage along the road to his house, and seeing someone hitting balls at 11:00PM. Yup - it was major league All-Star Tony Gwynn, who wasn't happy with something he saw that night and took some hacks on the way home.

Gwynn was not a flashy player. His philosophy was to be simply consistent at the basics of the game, consistently striving for more and more improvement each day of his career.

What does this have to do with the faith?

Well, in the bulletin this past Sunday were four simple questions for reflection - four questions that we did not draw attention to in our announcements.  These four questions were:

Where did you see God this week?
Where did you look for God this week?
How did you tend your should this week?
How did you let God tend your soul?

Maybe, just maybe, intentional consistent attention to the basics (prayer, fasting, worship, scripture, tithing, etc.) will have much more of an effect on our faith than seeking merely the 'home run' moments.

I hope and pray you and yours have a GREAT week.

Grace and Peace, Lamar