Why God Enjoys Baseball

I love this time of the year, especially this year (so far). Rooting for the Yankees (I grew up in New York, so they are simply my home team -- stop being such Yankee-haters!), fall is baseball time, and with the exception of last year, my chance to cheer for my team.

I love it when they slug it out, but I also love it when they play 'small-ball', the pitcher's duel, and managers play tactical chess-games of lefty-righty match-ups.

All this reminded me of a fantastic article/book on 'Why God Enjoys Baseball.'  I spoke last week about thinking of our work -- however mundane, however not-spiritual -- as opportunities to worship God.  Even our unredeemed activities, even our play, can be an expression of God's 'common grace.'  God delights in the excellence of His Creation.  This is why we root for heros, even though we don't know if they are Christian or not; this is why we admire acts of fair-play; this is why some movies move us in profound ways, because they speak of some deep, deep truth.

And this why God enjoys the present Yankees-Angels series, even though He might be rooting for both teams. Good baseball.  Good theology. (And please, no comments about how God has to be rooting for the 'angels.'  Not only was it a bad movie, its probably bad theology! - ;-))

Read more about this.
The book is a reference to Rich Mouw's He Shines in All That's Fair.

Like Icing on a Cake...

Okay, if anyone had any doubts about the perils of communication, check out this article on "Cakes Gone Wrong."

Funniest thing I read all day.

But more seriously, if a statement as specific as "please write on the cake 'Congratulations' as small as possible" is interpreted as "please write on the cake 'Congratulations as small as possible'"... well, you have to wonder how much of our everyday speech gets misheard.

Ever have someone get mad at you for something you never said?  Maybe you did.

Kinda emphasizes the need for grace in any meaningful communication, doesn't it?

Most People Think They Are Above Average...

Most of us walk around with the private (sometimes not-so-private) conceit that we are doing better than the average person. We are smarter, more objective, more disciplined, more self-reflective, more whatever than average. Ask any room full of people to guess their IQ, and unless it is some support group for depressed people, the result will always be higher than the 100--the statistical average by definition. Which begs the question, where are all the below average people hanging out?

This conceit/over-confidence is one of the reasons why writer Joseph Hallinan says we make mistakes.

Take for instance the success of the NutriSystem company. They sell low-calorie, prepackaged meals by mail to millions of subscribers who want to lose weight. Their stock went through a 233 percent growth in three years.

They advertise with the now well-known disclaimer "Results Not Typical" showing celebrities and regular people who lose something like 60 pounds... But the results are not typical! NutriSystem, it turns out, banks on not what people will do, but what people believe they will do. Turns out, most people think they're not typical. But if everyone is above average, then...

You get where I am going with this. We are easily self-deceived.

Read more from Why We Make Mistakes, by Joseph T. Hallinan.