Reflections from the Home Team May 30, 2020

“No person should live with this type of daily fear each and every day. This is what I feel as a black man. Memories of fear from 30 years ago should not rushing back like this. I have a young son who is going to one day grow up into a young man. What will I tell him? He should not have the same fears in this new age. America, we have to do better.”

Tyrone Brooks

Greetings from Cedar Falls,

I am extremely saddened by the tragic events that have taken place in Minneapolis as well as around the country this past week beginning with the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody.  Those events have sparked both outrage and fear in our nation.

A post from a good friend drove it home for me… The post came from Tyrone Brooks, a baseball friend for many years.  Tyrone and I worked together as he joined the Atlanta Braves Organization as my scouting supervisor here in the Midwest. I have watched his professional career progress over the years through several organizations to his current position with Major League Baseball as MLB’s Senior Director of the Diversity Pipeline Program. This was a new position created by the commissioner to stimulate greater diversity at baseball’s administrative levels. Just as important, I have watched Tyrone raise a beautiful family while always working to impact other’s lives in a positive way. Tyrone has always looked at his work as an opportunity to do something bigger than himself… something I have always known and admired about him.

Tyrone writes:

"True story...You never forget the feeling.... the flashing blue and white lights seen in the rear-view mirror, the pulsing heart rate as the cop car approaches, your body tensing up. What will happen next? Will I be harmed? Will I live another day?

Just yesterday (May 29th) I was driving, and two cop cars started approaching from the rear. Was I speeding? I thought I was doing the speed limit. I could feel my heartbeat starting to race. That same feeling when I got my first speeding ticket nearly thirty years ago not long after the Rodney King beating came immediately rushing back. Will I get beat too?

As the cop cars started getting closer, I started to pull over and I could feel my mouth going dry. My mind started racing. Do I have my license? Do I have proof of registration with me? Just be calm and collected. I want to live! Seconds later   the two cop cars blow past me as I made my way to the shoulder.... finally, I can breathe again.

No person should live with this type of daily fear each and every day. This is what I feel as a black man. Memories of fear from 30 years ago should not be rushing back like this. I have a young son who is going to one day grow up into a young man. What will I tell him? He should not have the same fears in this new age. America, we have to do better."

Tyrone’s friendship has been a blessing to me over the years and he is right, we have to do better!  While baseball continues to break down barriers that often separate people, baseball also gives us so many life lessons we can draw from; and I’ve learned and taught many of them. This event is no exception as life lessons are being learned from this situation by people we love and support in all our communities. As Jackie Robinson stated; “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”

As Christians, we have been taught to hold no preconceived notions about different groups of people. We're not to be judgmental, or racist, or prejudiced against people who look different. Right? Well, that’s what I’ve been taught, but I was recently challenged to spend a day “recognizing” my first thought about every person I came across who didn’t look like me in a parking lot, in a car or while shopping… I was to note the first thought that popped into my head. (Given the current Covid 19 situation, that first thought often revolved around are they contagious?) – but after that, I began to realize that I did have some preconceived notions about people who may look different than me. I think we all have some of them.

This challenge has made me determined to fight any predetermined perceptions I may experience on any given day, labels I may have placed on people without even knowing it. Stereotypes and judgments based on appearance are everywhere and usually begin at a very young age because of our upbringing and environment. I hope to do my part in stopping this in future generations, because God truly doesn't care about skin colors. God loves diversity!

I recently read that there are between 25,000 and 35,000 genes in every human cell and up to forty trillion cells in the human body! Somewhere between 100 to 378 genes are involved in the production of melanin—the pigment responsible for skin color. And this same melanin also determines our hair and eye color. God, in His perfectness, put together a formula, so small it can only be realized under high efficiency microscopes, just to create variety in His prized creation. It was no accident He orchestrated us in such a way that every human is unique. He programmed the genes from which all our variations come from… This was what He wanted.

Every ethnicity is the beautiful handiwork of God’s creative mind. His abundance of creativity pushes beyond our human understanding. A variety of skin colors gives Him glory for the vastness of His imagination! And we don’t have to look solely at humans to see evidence of this. Diversity is found in all of His creation. Trees. Flowers. Birds. Horses. Dogs. All glorify God and should be celebrated.

As Colossians 3:11 states, “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” And Romans 10:12 says, “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

And notice what He leaves out. He does not categorize any of these groups by their skin color. Why? Because He loves everyone the same. He made each beautiful and unique according to His infinite creative mind. If we are Christ-followers, we are called to be like Jesus, so we must work diligently to fight against labeling people by the color of their skin. God wants us to love each other in the same way that He loves – unconditionally. In fact, God wants us to love in such a way that the people around us will know we are fully devoted followers of Christ. Love is an ongoing and very deliberate choice – not an emotion or a feeling. Let’s choose to love those who may cross our paths each day the way Jesus loves each of us.

One of my favorite baseball quotes comes from a friend who I have scouted with for years. When I was diagnosed with cancer, he told me to “Live life like a 3-1 count”.  For those who may not understand what that means in baseball “lingo” it means when you’re a hitter and the count is three balls and one strike, you’re in control of the at-bat, the pitcher has to throw a strike or you get on base with a walk, it’s your time to take a big swing! I challenge you all to live life like a 3-1 count and take a big swing when the opportunity to do something positive presents itself in helping eliminate the fear that Tyrone described in his post. Our future generations will be better if we do and America will be better for it!

Blessings to all!

Dave

Are you or someone you know fighting cancer... struggling with the physical, emotional and spiritual issues that accompany a cancer journey or other serious health issue? Making ourselves available to others can open up the doors of opportunity for deeper relationships, healing, and transformation. For many, time is one of the most valuable commodities in today's fast-paced world. Sharing time with others is a wonderful gift. It says, "Here I am... for you. To listen, to care, to serve." The power of presence should never be underestimated!  

Be an encourager in someone else’s life!

To learn more about being an encourager, and to view the Reflections blog, visit the Reflections from the Home Team website at:

www.reflectionsfromthehometeam.com/

Reflections from the Home Team - May 2, 2020

“Our future is always uncertain… and as we find ourselves facing major life transitions in this pandemic environment, and sometimes feeling lost, stuck, confused or aimless, remember - these are all signs of an invitation for growth. This is a time between the ‘what was’ and the ‘next‘, a time of transition, a season of waiting, and not knowing.” Richard Rohr

Greetings from Cedar Falls!

One of the things that has upset me about this global pandemic is the uncertainty it has brought into our lives. I have been having some issues recently due to ongoing side effects I have been experiencing since treatments and I have a sense that my life on this earth has at times been an “endurance” contest. I look at it that way because then I’m not shocked or disappointed by the number of trials encountered along the way. I guess I may be focused more on that now given our current situation. Ultimately life is very short. None of us knows when it is time for us to go. Our time on this earth is shortened every moment, whether we like it or not, and once a moment is gone, it is gone forever.

I recently read a piece from author/theologian Fr. Richard Rohr which has really helped me through this difficult time.  He has been a morning quiet time “main stay” for me over the years.  His focus was on one of his editor/authors who received a cancer diagnosis two years ago which required a difficult surgery. Like many individuals who face serious health challenges, she allowed the painful and challenging experience to transform and guide her to greater wisdom. Obviously, I related to that as a cancer survivor, but I also connected it to the current situation we are all facing with the virus pandemic.

In the piece, Sheryl Fullerton, a cancer victim, talks about “Liminal Space”. The word liminal comes from the Latin word ‘limen’, meaning threshold – any point or place of entering or beginning. A liminal space is the time between the ‘what was’ and the ‘next.’ It is a place of transition, a season of waiting, and not knowing. Sounds an awful lot like what we are all going through right now!

Fr. Rohr describes “Liminal Space” this way:

“This is the sacred space where the old world is able to fall apart, and a bigger world is revealed. If we don’t encounter liminal space in our lives, we start idealizing normalcy. The threshold is God’s waiting room.”

These thresholds of waiting and not knowing our ‘next’ are everywhere in life, especially these days, and they are inevitable. Each usher in a new chapter of life and holds varying degrees of disruption. Whatever the change, it’s a seismic shift for us as our future seems uncertain.

Change never exists in a box…No matter how hard we might try to contain it, change in one area of life spills into others. There is a ripple effect. Community, careers, spirituality, vocation, relationships, our physical well-being, friendships and emotions do not exist mutually exclusive from one another—they all intersect with each other. For me, that has been pretty obvious over the past couple months. When we become aware of our liminality, many of us, if we’re honest, don’t know who to become or how to navigate the transition. We often miss the real potential of ‘in-between’ places – we either stand paralyzed or we flee the “terrible cloud of unknown.”

When thinking about this, I couldn’t help but recall a book I read a year or so ago that put this in perspective for me.  In fact, I pulled it off my shelf and began reading it again. The book is titled The Closer: My Story by Mariano Rivera, probably the greatest relief pitcher of all time who shares his extraordinary story of survival, love, and of course, baseball. The man who intimidated thousands of batters merely by opening a bullpen door, began his incredible journey as the son of a poor Panamanian fisherman. When first scouted by the Yankees, he didn't even own his own glove. He thought he might make a good mechanic. When discovered, he had never flown in an airplane, had never heard of Babe Ruth, spoke no English, and couldn't imagine Tampa, the city where he was headed to begin a career that would become one of baseball's most iconic pitchers.

What he did know was that he loved his family and his girlfriend, Clara, that he could trust in the Lord to guide him, and that he could throw a baseball exactly where he wanted to, every time. With astonishing candor, Rivera tells the story of the championships, and the struggles of being a Latino baseball player in the United States while maintaining Christian values in professional athletics.

Mariano represents to me the concept of how to make the most of liminal space. He is a classic example of walking through “what was” and into “what is to become”. His story shares how he encountered a number of challenges/pain along the way, going from a poverty stricken, dirt poor son of a Panamanian fisherman who actually caught the eye of a Yankee scout while throwing rocks on the beach to the best reliever baseball has ever known… Quite the “transformation”!

The only player to be elected unanimously to the National Baseball Hall of Fame had a rough first nine months in Yankee pinstripes, a stretch that lasted between May 1995 and spring training the following year, when he was shelled in his major league debut, demoted to the minors and was almost shipped to Seattle as part of a trade package during the beginning of the Joe Torre era.

The Panamanian-born right hander says that those early setbacks, in particular being sent down to Triple-A with Derek Jeter on the same day early in their careers, were “pivotal” moments that helped shape his character and Hall of Fame resume. He obviously used his “liminal space” wisely!  He shattered bats, struck out 1,173 batters during the regular season, and gained respect throughout baseball due to both his dominance and humble nature. Rivera has spent his post-baseball life building a church in New Rochelle, near where he lives, and continues to expand his ministry, charitable efforts and foundation work.

As Fr. Rohr points out, our future is always uncertain… and as we find ourselves facing major life transitions in this pandemic environment, and sometimes feeling lost, stuck, confused or aimless, remember - these are all signs of an invitation for growth. This is a time between the ‘what was’ and the ‘next ‘, a time of transition, a season of waiting, and not knowing. Just as Mariano used his “liminal space” to improve his game and life skills, we can successfully transition during this time if we learn how to wait and listen while working on bettering ourselves and developing a clear path forward.

The good news is that you don’t have to go through transition alone! This doesn’t have to be something you endure and survive. I think the following  verse from James 1:12 says it best... “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.”

I can relate to that thought as I reflect on some of the trials I have faced along the way in my life. Even in the midst of some of my hardest times, the joy of God’s presence has always been available to me. The “crown of life“ seems similar to the wreath that was awarded for athletic victory in biblical times, and yes, even the first unanimous selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame for Mariano. Those athletes were competing for a perishable crown of greenery, and in James 1:12, God has promised to give His reward of the “crown of life” that will never fade away to all who love Him, despite what trials we may face in this life.

I am trying my best not to obsess about these problems and continue to  bring them to God in prayer. I know God is near me, and instead of wasting time worrying, I am devoting my time trusting Him to supply what I need, when I need it to get through this. I am praying that He will equip me to handle whatever comes my way. He is the God who provides, and I plan to rest there, each day, right smack in the middle of all His abundance.

Wishing you a wonderful, safe and joy filled day in the middle of all the craziness going on around us. Remember, Jesus dwells within us and transforms us into new beings, which guides us and empowers us to live a good and beautiful life.

Dave

Are you or someone you know fighting cancer... struggling with the physical, emotional and spiritual issues that accompany a cancer journey or other serious health issue? Making ourselves available to others can open up the doors of opportunity for deeper relationships, healing, and transformation. For many, time is one of the most valuable commodities in today's fast-paced world. Sharing time with others is a wonderful gift. It says, "Here I am... for you. To listen, to care, to serve." The power of presence should never be underestimated!  

Be an encourager in someone else’s life!

To learn more about being an encourager, and to view the Reflections blog, visit the Reflections from the Home Team website at:

www.reflectionsfromthehometeam.com/