Reflections from the Home Team - July 19, 2020

“Just as many of us have been waiting patiently for the baseball season to start, we can take hope in the fact that we have “been there” before… As we continue to struggle with the COVID-19 epidemic and the impact it has had on our daily lives, we need to employ both patience and faith which will allow us to be strengthened and to endure. Simply put, patience and faith can be our hope in these challenging times.”

Greetings from Cedar Falls!

A good friend who also scouts baseball recently sent me an email with the above photo attached to remind me “we have been there before” as we finally get ready to open the 2020 baseball season this coming Thursday.  Gleaned from the archives of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the image showed an exhibition game played in Pasadena, California, in January 1919. The scene shows the batter, catcher and umpire all wearing surgical masks, as are those watching from the grandstand. The image was captured just a few months before the third and final wave of the devastating influenza pandemic that emerged in 1918. One hundred years later, we are all wearing masks again as we prepare to finally open the Major League baseball season this week.

When Major League Baseball begins its 2020 season Thursday in Washington D.C., players will not need wool hats and coats in the dugout.  It should be about 80 degrees. A season opener on July 23 will certainly be unusual. In early April, the Nationals would have seen the thermometer dip into the 40s. This year, fans won’t have to be worried about the weather … they won’t be there. And, no matter the outcome, the losing team can’t just shrug it off as one loss in 162 games. The 2020 schedule is a 60-game sprint.

It is a cruel twist of biology that the social distancing required in response to the COVID-19 epidemic has robbed us of baseball’s normal spring start, something that might help to heal our souls. But wait we must — for a sport that has previously proved nearly impervious to both war and pestilence.

I remember as a kid imitating my favorite players batting stance, (which changed often depending on how well I was hitting) somehow believing this would miraculously transfer my heroes’ skill into my performance. That is the special relationship we have with baseball and indeed all sports. As the world now takes on the challenge of COVID-19, those on the medical front lines too have to be hailed as heroes. Baseball may be considered by many as a medicine for the masses, but for each individual fan, it can also provide a personal prescription that may be “used as needed.” The topic of baseball is nearly always welcome, especially in the most difficult moments.

If you’re like me, your life has been most likely been turned upside down by the Covid 19 outbreak. Work is different. Any social life has ground to a halt. “Social Distancing” is suddenly a word that we know and hear daily. Fear and uncertainty are rampant. Anxiety thrives on the unknown. By and large, despite all the ups and downs, we’ve all become accustomed to relative stability and predictability. Now, however, our changing world all but ensures waking up to a new set of rules, limitations, and changes. Despite our anxious brain’s effort to often highlight the terrible, and despite what we often hear being reported around us sucking any sense of optimism from the day, there is HOPE!

A couple of things come to mind as I try my best to frame what is going on around me into a positive mindset, which brings me to this reflection, setting the table for some hope and optimism in these challenging times.

For those of you who know me, you know that I have been a longtime advocate for Afterschool programming for kids. I recall hearing a story at a conference I was presenting at in Dallas back in 2016 about a program called Hope Center located in the Houston area.  Hope Center was simply a trailer in the middle of a trailer park started as a non-profit by its founder, Ray Hughes. Ray and several members of his church asked themselves how they could make a difference in their neighborhood and help the children who lived there. They determined that an Afterschool program for the neighborhood kids was the answer, so they bought a trailer, built the Hope Center and now the neighborhood kids go there to learn, play and engage in healthy activities after school. The kid’s grades have improved dramatically all because a few of the locals asked what their community needed and then proceeded to “build” the answer together.

Interestingly, there is another church about 100 feet from this neighborhood, basically right next door, with a big iron fence around it to keep the kids in the neighborhood out. Yet, the founders of Hope Center chose to move into the neighborhood and welcome the children with an open heart. The kids are thriving because someone gave them HOPE and took action to show them what it looks like.

I believe this is symbolic of the choices we all now have in this time of challenge. We can choose hope and faith or imprison ourselves with fear. We can choose to give hope to others or build an iron fence around our lives and heart. When we live with hope and take action to give hope to others, we become all we are meant to be. Even though we might not have to buy a trailer and build a Hope Center, we can each turn our life, our work and our homes into a center of HOPE!

Another thought that popped into my mind about positivity and hope came as a result of dealing with an infestation of ants out here on the farm.  Can you believe that?? I’m sure many of you can, because many of you have shared with me you have had a similar problem this year. How does that tie into positivity and hope you may ask?  Well, let me share an article I ran across back in 2016 by Dr. Daniel Amen titled “The Number One Habit to Develop in Order to Become More Positive.”  Given all the negativity going on around us in today’s world, it provided me some practical mental exercises I could use to fend off that negativity. It reads:

Would you like to reverse depression, anxiety, or negativity in your life? Would you like to experience peace of mind and joy? Then you need to become an expert about “ANTs.”

Dr. Daniel Amen coined this term in the early 1990’s after a hard day at the office, during which he had several very difficult sessions with suicidal patients, teenagers in turmoil, and a married couple who hated each other.

When he got home that evening, he found thousands of ants in his kitchen. As he started to clean them up, an acronym developed in his mind. He thought of his patients from that day – just like the infested kitchen, his patients’ brains were also infested by Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) that were robbing them of their joy and stealing their happiness.

He started teaching patients how to eliminate all of the ANTs because they are what drive depression, what stoke anxiety, and what fuel negativity. Every single time you have a thought, your brain releases chemicals.

Every time you have a sad, hopeless, mad, cranky, unkind, judgmental, or helpless thought, your brain immediately releases chemicals that make your body feel awful. Your hands get cold and wet, your muscles get tense, your heart beats faster, and your breathing becomes shallower. Additionally, the activity in your frontal and temporal lobes decreases which negatively affects your judgment, learning, memory.

The opposite is also true – whenever you have a happy, hopeful, loving, kind or positive thought, your brain releases a completely different set of chemicals. Your hands get warmer and dryer, your breathing becomes deeper and more regular, your muscles relax, your blood pressure decreases, and your brain works better.

So, if you want to eradicate depression, anxiety, and negativity from your life, you need to work on disciplining your mind to get rid of the ANTs and developing an ANTeater to patrol the streets of your mind.

Just as there are a many species of ants in the world, there are different kinds of negative thought patterns (ANTs).

Here are a few you need to learn to identify:

FORTUNE TELLING

This is the ANT of almost anyone who has a panic disorder. They are masterful at predicting the worst, even though they don’t have any evidence.

MIND READING

Where you arbitrarily believe that you know what someone else is thinking, even though they didn’t tell you. Many people do this, and more often than not it gets them into trouble. It’s a major reason why people have trouble in relationships.

GUILT BEATINGS

Thinking with words like should, must, ought and have to. The words we use to talk to ourselves are very important. Guilt is not a very good motivator for change. Telling yourself “I should go see my grandmother” rather than “I want to spend time with my grandmother” only serves to make you feel negative.

BLAME

Whenever you blame someone else for the problems in your life, you are a victim and you can’t do anything to change it. Many of us play the blame game, but it rarely helps us. Stay away from blaming thoughts and take personal responsibility for changing the problems you have.

LABELING

Calling yourself or someone else a derogatory name. This diminishes your ability to see situations clearly and labels are very harmful.

So now that you have met some of the ANTs that rob you of your happiness and peace of mind, what do you do about them?

Whenever you find yourself feeling mad, sad, nervous, or out-of-control, write down what you are thinking. Then identify which ANT species is infesting your mind and talk back to it. Challenging negative thoughts (killing the ANTs) takes away their power and gives YOU control over your thoughts, moods, and behaviors.

Some good practical advice when confronted with those pesky ANTs!

This morning, I felt a sense of hope as I attended one of our first “in-person” services at Nazareth since shutting those down back in March due to Covid 19. Pastor Dennis Hanson shared this morning’s message focusing on the 8^th Chapter in the Book of Romans talking about “Gospel Induced Hope”.  A thought he shared has stuck with me throughout the day… “Hope is the promise of a future worth the trouble it takes to get out of bed in the morning.” That really resonated with me as I know the feeling of doing my best to literally “roll out of bed” in the morning these days… sometimes I even land on my feet!
As Romans 8:24-25 says: “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”

Just as many of us have been waiting patiently for the baseball season to start, we can take hope in the fact that we have “been there” before. As we continue to struggle with the COVID-19 epidemic and the impact it has had on our daily lives, we need to employ both patience and faith which will allow us to be strengthened and to endure. Simply put, patience and faith can be our hope in these challenging times.

Blessings your way and take time to enjoy OPENING DAY this Thursday!

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/