Baseball and Grace

It’s no secret, I love baseball. When my brothers and I were growing up we invented a game in our backyard called “Balooga Ball”. It was our own form of baseball and it was amazing. I loved playing as a kid. I married a rabid Cardinals fan. We spent our first seven anniversaries going to weekends at Busch Stadium. My son eats, sleeps, drinks, and breathes baseball. Some people are Republicans, some are Democrats, we’re Baseball People.

As my love for the game has matured beyond wanting to see the long-ball. I have discovered the raw beauty of the game. I know that soccer is the “beautiful game” and the “world’s game”. Baseball will always be for me the beautiful game. It’s full of strategy and decisions. On every pitch nine men move together like a symphony. Baseball, for me, will always be pure. There is nothing like the moment you walk from concourse out to the field. The sounds, the smells, the colors, it is unique.

Beyond the beauty, I’ve come to love the way that baseball rejoices in failure. Perfection is not something that can be attained. Baseball, alone in sport, has grace built into its very soul. The greatest players of all time fail 70% of the time. If you’re the home team, no matter how far behind you are, you get your last bats. The game is timeless. You play until the the game is over, no matter the score. When you have a bad game, you come back tomorrow to play again.

When I think about following Jesus, I realize that I fail more than 70% of the time. Yet, I’m not rejected. I am still loved and embraced. When I have a bad day I get to come back and try again tomorrow. The game never ends. No score is kept because the outcome has already been determined by Jesus.

Grace, it’s that word that represents the idea that God loves us regardless of our brokenness. It’s that word that represents his relentless pursuit us. It’s an idea that changed the world.

Every time I watch a baseball game, I see grace.

The post Baseball and Grace appeared first on The Journal by Daniel M. Rose.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/1DZRw1R

via IFTTT

Read More

Translating Generations

Read More

40 Days to Easter

I wrote about grace yesterday, almost one year to the day, I wrote nearly the exact same thing. Weird huh? I think what happens is that when we get close to Easter my heart is drawn to thinking about what took place that first Easter.

That first Easter a moment that changed the course of history. An act of total sacrifice. An act that ended not in death, but in life. The resurrection, the reversal of the fall. The beginning of the reconciliation of all things.

Reconciliation. What a word. It is one of those words that makes us uncomfortable. It is a word that demands action. You can’t sit on it and just do nothing.

Every year Lent rolls around and our Facebook feeds are filled with people giving stuff up. We give up chocolate, beers, maybe even Facebook itself. It’s a time when we seek to deny ourselves to prepare for Easter.

What good does it do?

We have 40 days until the ultimate act of reconciliation. What might happen if we prepared for Easter by seeking out those we need reconciliation with? What if we gave grace and received it? What if we acted on our call to be reconciled to man and God?

Could you imagine every year Christians pursuing reconciliation for 40 days?

That just might change everything.

You have 40 days, how will use it?

The post 40 Days to Easter appeared first on The Journal by Daniel M. Rose.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/1A6K168

via IFTTT

Read More

On Grace

I’ve been thinking about grace quite a bit recently. Sometimes that happens to me. An idea or concept gets stuck in my head and I just can’t shake it. It’s a splinter in my brain.

Grace has been like that over the last few days.

I just can’t shake the reality of grace. I keep thinking about a conversation we had one night at my friend Bob’s house. He asked a simple question, “What’s grace?” Everyone sat there quietly. I of course piped up with the Cru answer, “Unmerited favor.” His response, “What’s so amazing about that?”

What’s so amazing about grace? What is it about grace that inspires people to write songs and sing? What is it about grace that inspires some of the most beautiful literature ever written (think Les Miserables)?

Bono wrote, “Grace is an idea that changed the world.”

I remember my grandmother saying on more than one occasion, “But by the grace of God go I.”

What is it about grace?

Certainly grace is defined as “unmerited favor.” But that textbook definition does little to inspire. I wonder if grace in action is something that inspires us and draws us in more than understanding the word?

Grace is what transforms a weary heart into a heart full of life and joy. Grace is that moment when something happens and you look around and can’t quite believe it.

When I read Ephesians 1 grace overwhelms me.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:3-10 ESV)

It is by God’s “glorious grace” that all things are reconciled to him. I think that really is at the heart of what makes grace amazing. It’s because somewhere in each of us, when we experience that which was lost or broken being found and put back together, we know it’s a picture of what God is doing. We might not say it, we might not even believe it, but deep down, in places we don’t talk about at parties, we need grace, we love grace, and we want grace and are drawn to it.

What would it look like for you to live a life where you pursue reconciliation and peace with those around you? What would it look like for you to be and agent of grace? How would you change if you looked for amazing grace everywhere you went?

The post On Grace appeared first on The Journal by Daniel M. Rose.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/19ruPXr

via IFTTT

Read More

On Calling

I have to get this off my chest. It’s something that has been weighing on my heart and mind for a couple weeks. I’ve wrestled, I’ve prayed, I’ve pondered. I love the Church. I love it with everything that I have. It is beautiful and messy and ugly and wonderful.

The thing that I love most about the Church is that those who lead, do so as a result of calling. True Christian leadership is not about prestige or power. It’s not about getting paid. It is about being called. There is an inward call and an outward call.

The inward call is the Spirit of God working inside the person drawing them into leadership. The outward call is the people of God confirming the inward working of the Spirit. This is the beauty of leadership within the Church it is individual and communal. It is a both/and. Leadership is a calling.

Yesterday I wrote this,

If your calling is dependent on your comfort, it isn’t your calling.

— Daniel Rose (@danielmrose) February 10, 2015

Sadly, I’m beginning to see many in the Church think about leadership in a secular way. There is a sense that to get “talent” you need to sell people on something. You need to “recruit” them.

This is not how Christian leadership works.

It is supposed to be about calling. It is supposed to be the individual hearing from the Spirit and having that calling confirmed by the larger church.

When we feel the necessity to “compete” for leaders by trying to create a context or environment or “benefits” for them, we are moving away from calling to something else. Leaders in the Church are not to be wooed like Max Scherzer.

We are missing the boat when we begin to think like CEO’s within the Church. We are supposed to be better than that. Beyond that, when we start thinking this way we are no longer thinking Christianly, but as CS Lewis would say, “sub-Christian”.

Leadership within the Church is anything but comfortable. Following Jesus at all, is anything but comfortable. If we are promising comfort to potential leaders we are not inviting them into Gospel leadership. We are inviting them into something else, something less.

No, leadership within the Church is supposed to be something more. It’s supposed to be a self-sacrificial act. Too many today think otherwise and it breaks my heart. Careerism is not calling. Climbing the organizational ladder is not calling. Giving all of who you are for the cause of Jesus for the sake of his Church, that’s calling. When you’re truly called it doesn’t matter where, when, or how, you just go. You go with faith your eyes and trust that this Jesus you follow will provide, care, and support you. You trust that the Church will get your back.

If you’re in it for anything else, then you’re not called. If you’re not called, it’s best if you walk away from leadership within the Church. If you’re not called then you’ll make decisions out of a desire for comfort, power, or prestige. All things that are antithetical to the call of Jesus.

I’ll close with Jesus’ pitch to would be disciples,

“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:27 ESV)”

“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.(Luke 14:33 ESV)”

“As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:57-62 ESV)

The post On Calling appeared first on The Journal by Daniel M. Rose.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/1A9k5c2

via IFTTT

Read More