Endurance

If you’ve known me long at all, you know that I live and die with the Atlanta Braves. I was first introduced to them via TBS (Back then it was “W”TBS, The Superstation).

Growing up in West Tennessee, many of my friends were St. Louis Cardinals fans. Whether you leaned toward St. Louis or Atlanta, any major league baseball stadium was a good day’s drive away. Seeing a game in person was a rare luxury indeed, reserved for maybe once a season.

A strange thing happens when you follow a baseball team, day in, day out, year after year. Over the course of 162 games each season, you really begin to feel that you know the guys on the field. Their sporting lives unfold like a soap opera, with a new chapter written each afternoon or evening.

Eventually, you come to know something of each player's tendency, attitude and personality on the field. A real fan can anticipate whether Andruw will bite on the 2-2 pitch low and away, or whether he’ll take that one this time, waiting for a mistake --- something he can drive.

Every off season brings losses and additions to “the family.” Each new season presents its own challenges and possibilities.

This spring, I’ve been tempted to add Jeff Francoeur to our prayer list, but have managed to refrain from that act so far. If he doesn’t gain some patience at the plate by May, we may have no choice.

I remember, as a child, hearing a story about a little old lady in Atlanta that simply blew my mind. She got to see the Braves play, in person, every single day.

She bought season tickets to the Atlanta “Crackers” home games (Atlanta’s minor league team) way back in 1936. She attended every home game for the next 30 years. When the Braves moved to Atlanta 40 years ago, she carried over her tradition, attending every home Braves’ game from 1966 until failing health finally ended her streak in 1990.

When Braves’ owner Ted Turner heard about her streak in 1975, he gave her a “free pass for life.”

She promptly bought the adjoining seat for her purse.

To this day, one seat at Turner Field bears a plaque in her honor, and remains unsold at every single home game. Even though she never got to go to a game at the new stadium, her presence is there as the Braves honor her amazing commitment and endurance.

Pearl Sandow, aged 103 years, died this Monday.

I know this is a little “out there,” but I just can’t help thinking of Ms. Sandow as a kind of baseball “Moses.” She endured some very, very bad Braves’ times. In the 24 years she attended all those Braves’ games, they only won two division titles. They never got to a World Series.

In 1990, the final year of her attendance streak, the Braves finished dead last, capping one of the worst periods of losing in the club’s history.

In 1991 they finished first, won the playoffs and almost took the world series.

Four years later, they would finally win it all, entering the promised land by beating the Cleveland Indians in Game 6, 1-0. The line score of that game is still posted at Turner Field.

Indians 0, Braves 1.

And Ms. Sandow wasn’t there to see it.

But I bet her retirement facility was rocking and rolling with celebration.

Moses didn’t enter the promise land, after years and years of doing his best to get there. He glimpsed it, he new that God would make good on his promise to his people, and then he rested from his labors. For years and years, he showed up. Even though he was not confident in his gifts or abilities, he was consistently available to God.

Sometimes, just showing up, every single time…is enough to make a difference.

Greatness, whether in things of faith or baseball, pretty much always starts with…just showing up. There’s just not much that can happen in our hearts, or in our lives, unless we’re available in the first place.

Growing up in small Methodist churches, I can always remember the elderly (at least in my mind) little ladies who would proudly wear their “Sunday School pins,” – rewards for perfect attendance.

Some of them had gone decades without missing a single Sunday morning. As I got older, I can remember being cynical about their accomplishment and thinking that their little pins seemed like the height of self-righteousness and silliness. "They care more about 'the streak' than Jesus," I believed.

Maybe I had a little self-righteousness issue of my own.

Older now, and with better perspective, I can see the importance of what they accomplished, and the reason for their pride. There is value in showing up.

Pearl Sandow showed up, and a lot happened in the process. Players got to know her, and they continued to call and visit her throughout the last years of her life. She was there one day when Jerry Royster made three errors and sat, crying, in the dugout. She talked to him, encouraged him, and he never forgot it.

Though she never married or had children of her own, her unrelenting presence gave birth to status as the Braves’ “team mom.” All because she decided to show up.

The thing is, you just never know what might happen -- but nothing can happen if you're not willing to show up in the first place.

God is calling each of us to show up for something. If you don’t know what that is just yet – keep showing up where you are. Presence, availability, and endurance: they are gifts from God, and they will be honored.

I’ll see you this Sunday (and we might even work out a free lifetime pass),

Grace and Peace,
Adam

LIFE AT SOTH:

Welcome to new members Lyn Cook and Wendell Felch, who both joined this Sunday by Profession of Faith. Already this year, SOTH has received 20 new professing members, and added 8 children to our preparatory roll!

Monthly Supper Tonight: Don’t forget, we’ll gather for our monthly community meal tonight at the church, 6:30 pm. Good to Great study will follow, around 7pm, at “The Ranch.”

Upcoming Sermon Series: The Da Vinci Code. Tom Hanks will soon star in a motion picture release of “The Da Vinci Code,” and both the movie and book it’s based on have generated many questions about Christian history. Beginning Sunday, April 30th, we’ll spend three weeks looking at some of those questions and working to sort fact from fiction. Invite your friends and neighbors to this special series.

“Church Conference” this Sunday at 10:00 a.m. At our late worship service this Sunday, we will have a short “church conference” time to adopt some revisions in church officers and ministry teams for the remainder of 2006.

RACK: Send us your stories! sandi@sothumc.net

Since I seldom go anywhere that I see lots of people, I knew God would bring somebody to me eventually. I waited for just the right person to come along. Finally, I decided I wasn't supposed to decide who the right person was, so I vowed to get rid of the envelope as soon as I could!
When I was on my way to lunch, there was a decidedly sorry man at the exit from 20 to Fairburn Rd., so I rolled down my window and handed him the envelope. He told me repeatedly that God loved me, shook my hand and introduced himself. He continued to ramble on, and, in the midst of his ramblings said, "Can I have your car too?!"



A third-grade neighbor kid had glasses with a broken frame. His Mom taped the frame and he wore them like that for several months. He was kidded, of course, by the other kids but he acted like he didn't care.
I saved all my change and 'extra' money and had almost enough for an eye exam and new glasses for the boy, and the RACK envelope made up the difference.
This was the answer to a prayer because I had prayed about how to offer the money to his Mom. The envelope solved the problem, and they didn't have to know that any of the money was from me. My little friend has new glasses!