Touch All The Bases

“In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will direct your paths.”
Proverbs 3:6

Putting together a message for an elementary and middle school awards ceremony, with an audience ranging from second graders to grandparents, can be a daunting task. And so I was incredibly thankful when the Lord quickened the theme to me, Touch All The Bases. Using the baseball analogy, I quickly came up with 1^st base being paying attention in class and listen to your teacher. 2^nd base would then be doing your homework every night and giving your best effort and 3^rd base would be going the extra mile, looking up words you don’t know the definition of and going beyond the minimum. And then, for effect of course, I’d hold up a home plate borrowed from the gym to wrap up with hitting a home run in your academics.

But I couldn’t leave the parents out, not with the tuition that they pay for private school. So the parental 1^st base was staying involved in their children’s education, proofing papers and helping with homework. 2^nd base for the parents was praying for their children faithfully with 3^rd base being a willingness to say no once in a while. (In the second version, 3^rd base became setting a Godly example of Christian living for their children to follow.) And, of course, being a grandfather to three beautiful granddaughters, the grandparents were easy. Just their being at the grandkids’ awards ceremony had them rounding 3^rd base and heading for home.

But the message, and the conviction on my own heart, didn’t stop there. Meditating on it, and sharing it with our church, the truth resonates that we’ve got to “Touch All the Bases” in our Christian lives if we want to find success in the Lord. My 1^st base for believers is staying in God’s Word. We can never overemphasize the importance of the counsel, the direction, and the wisdom that comes from God’s Word as we faithfully read and meditate on it. We could put so many truths to 2^nd and 3^rd base to make it exhausting but forgiveness was the 2^nd base this time around. People will hurt and disappoint us but we must forgive others, for the freedom it gives, and to receive the forgiveness we need from the Lord. 3^rd base was trusting the Lord in the hard areas of life, and speaking words of faith that reflect a growing faith in the Lord and in His goodness towards us.

No doubt, we can each come up with the bases that we find key in our Christian walk, and define touching home plate in a way that is challenging yet fulfilling. But we’re all competing for a prize and we all have a race to run and to win!

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church