taking the supporting role

i have to confess something else. i at one point was very active in sports. soccer, i was as bad as it gets. football, i could hold my own. baseball however was my true love. my first two seasons were pretty shaky, then again at age 10 and 11 who is very good and coordinated? however, by age 12 i was pretty decent. i hardly sat on the bench and had the oh so nice spot of batting 6 out of 11 (Little League rules in this league said that everyone batted). i was always good for a clutch hit and was an above average fielder.

by the time i was 13 and in 7th grade, i was the man. i had the best stats for a 13 year old on my team and held a decent batting average of .312 while playing every inning that year as first basemen. you would think i would be a lock to make the all-star team at the end of the season. however, you would be wrong. i lived in a small town at the time and did not grow up in that town. let me explain....small towns in alabama, you are more or less important depending on who your daddy is in the community (i'm not bitter, just stating fact). since i was a newbie in town, i had no one pulling for me. despite having a better season than any other 13 year old on my team, i was shut out. two kids who had grown up in the town and were friends of the all star coach's son made the team instead of me. i remember being devastated and becoming very bitter that year. i had worked so hard, improved, done my best, and thought i deserved this reward to represent my team.

fast forward a year later. i'm no longer living in alabama and am living in connecticut. the talent level is a bit higher and it showed. i played well but there were several people that were much better than me. that year i did not deserve it. that year i figured out my role was as an encourager. i would shout from the dugout at my teammates at bat, i would high-five if they get a hit, or give them a "you'll get 'em next time" if they got out. it wasn't the most glorious role but no one else on my team was doing it, so i decided that would be my job.

the next year, i had the game of all games. we were running neck and neck with the other team in the late innings. we're losing by one run going into the last inning and miraculously i get on base with one out. i'm able to steal second and move into scoring position. the hitter hits a long pop fly, i tag up and when the catch is made am barely able to slide into third for another base. with two outs a very below average hitter was up to bat. the coach said, "if that ball gets by that catcher, you better run like a demon is chasing you because he ain't gonna hit you in." i took his advice to heart and sure enough, a wild pitch. i break off running as fast as i can and slide safely into home plate to score the tying run. we are now off to extra innings and the other team goes two straight scoreless innings. once again i come up to bat. there is a man on third base and i'm up with two outs. i literally am the last hope for our team to tie up this game before yet another extra inning. i work the count to 2-0 and then the miracle became complete. i got the most perfect change up thrown to me and i responded by whacking the cover off the ball. the ball sailed into centerfield well over the fielder's head. i hit the walk-off triple that won the game. this one time, i got to be the hero. my teammates were the ones high-fiving me, not the other way around.

i never quite had a game like that again. i relegated myself to being a great fielder and an average hitter who could be great on occasion. i also realized i was a good encourager and i began to really enjoy my role. instead of trying to be the hero, i became the guy who supported the top players on the team because i was most definitely not as good as they were.

the next year proved to be my last year in organized sports. it wasn't for any particular reason other than i didn't have the opportunity. i was by far the least talented person on this team but i kept it in perspective and was honored i even got on the team. i was a solid fielder all year and could be counted on not to make errors. my hitting was crap though. i couldn't swat flies i was that bad. i had a few moments where i made some spectacular looking hits, but for the most part i was the pop-fly and strike out king. i still kept up my cheering and being the supporting player of the team. then a funny thing happened, all-star time came around and i got to try-out. even though i wasn't the best player, i was given a shot because of my attitude. i never complained, i was levelheaded, and never gave up on a game until the final out was done.

in perhaps the biggest surprise of all time in my life, i actually made the team. it may have been that the try outs were not that big of a deal to some of the players. it may also have been that not too many people showed up for it. there were a lot of reasons why i made the team but for that to be the final team i ever played on, it holds a very special place. it was fun from start to finish. i felt i had been rewarded for all my hard work and i was finally able to let go of the disappointment of coming so close to making an all-star team and never getting it. i wish i could say we won a tournament but that didn't happen. we won our first game and then lost two straight meaning we were done. for me, just the fact that i got to be on that team, made all those years of hard work worth it.

now...if you have been reading my blogs you know that i usually try to connect this to some random part of my walk with christ at the moment. well here it is....

i am not. not I AM. i am not. louie giglio in his book "i am not" specifically talks about how we need to stop trying to run the show that is our lives. apart from christ we can do nothing. he uses language that sparked something within me on the last re-read. we need to start realizing we are not the star of the show. we are only bit players. the supporting actor you could say. when we make christ the center of our lives, we become supporting players in the greatest story ever told. god can do a lot with us playing a supporting role rather than when we try to butt in and say we know better.

lately, i've realized the truth of the verse in john "he must become greater, and i must become less and less." the more i lower myself, the easier life is and the more intimate my relationship with christ becomes. and i don't mean easier in terms of bad things never happen to me. i mean easier in the way i handle life.

in the baseball example, the more i lowered myself, the greater the reward later. for one game, i got to be the hero. the last team i ever played on, i got to be an "all-star". for years and years i played the supporting the role and in my opinion, god rewarded me for being faithful and not quitting even when the talent in the leagues far surpassed mine. i am truly thankful for those two moments and i hope one day to pass those stories along to my kids. there aren't many things in my life i like to take pride in, but those two moments mean so much to me. i'm tearing up even thinking about them right now.

the point of this really long blog? the older i get, the more i realize i need to lower my face to the ground, because i am not...and he is I AM and that it's better to be a supporting player in his big story, rather than trying to be the main star in my story. if we play the supporting role in god's story, he will do extraordinary things with us rather than if we try to be the star.

i am not......famous