Monday Morning Manna: Change is Everywhere: Baseball and Church
Bob Dylan sang, “The Times They Are A-Changin'”. As further proof of this, another baseball fanatic/friend sent me a copy of “Identifying baseball pitch types in 2023: A modern field guide to MLB’s diversifying arsenals.” The article included discussions on various weapons of a pitcher: Fastball (four seam and two seam), Cutter, Slider, Sweeper, Curveball, Change-up, Screwball, Knuckleball, Splitter, and then the article got in the hybrids. My immediate thoughts were two-fold: (1) glad my playing days ended several decades ago and (2) glad I was a Shortstop, not a pitcher. As a mid-average batter, I only had to worry about a fastball, a curve, and a change—up. If we saw a pitcher with anything other than that, no one else on the team was going to get a hit either. As I often do in my thinking, I switched metaphors from sports to church.??I remember a much simpler Sunday routine: dress up, get to church early, get the hymn book out of the pew rack, sing familiar hymns (in bright lights rather than low-light, theater-type environment), enjoy the choir special, listen to a 28 minute sermon from a preacher who dressed up to honor God, endure the invitation hymn without surrendering to missions, sing a benediction, shake everyone’s hand on the way to the cafeteria (ahead of the Methodists). Paul wrote: Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).??Even Bob Dylan ends his song with, “the present now will later be past, the order is rapidly fadin' . . . For the times they are a-changin’.” Amen!
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Dr. Dan R. Crawford, Senior Professor, Chair of Prayer Emeritus; Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas. Former Head of Task Force for the Teaching of Prayer in Theological Education for America’s National Prayer Committee.?Administrative Consultant for the Valley Baptist Missions Education Center.
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