“A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.” — Proverbs 29:23 (NKJV)
A Humbled Spirit
I love baseball. I’m sure it’s because I grew up watching the game in minor-league ballparks as a child, and also because my dad would tell me stories about old-time players. He saw Hall of Famer Ted Williams play and even saw Hall-of-Fame knuckleball reliever Hoyt Wilhelm play in the minor leagues. Pretty impressive.
One thing that always amazes about the game is how a player can rebound after a setback. Someone who comes to mind when thinking about this is Brad Lidge, the former MLB closer who didn’t blow a single save in his 48 chances during the 2008 season.
Obviously, when you’re perfect, there aren’t setbacks. But there were seasons in Lidge’s life when he struggled. He had a bad postseason in 2005, then struggled through 2006 and 2007 before being released by the Astros. Even after his All-Star season of 2008, he blew 11 saves in 2009 as his ERA ballooned to 7.21.
Lidge once said something, though, that stood out to me and made me know how he was able to get out of that funk. He said he realized that who he was as a baseball player wasn’t who He was in Christ.
Like Lidge, we need to humble ourselves, and separate our earthly failures from how Christ sees us. If it’s sin, we need to ask for forgiveness. If it’s a failure in business or marriage or something else, we need to ask God to help us see ourselves through the eyes of Christ.
— Brett Honeycutt
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