Theology of Baseball Part 1 “Hits, Runs, and Errors – A Gospel of Grace” (THRIVE)

Baseball, like life, has a time-honored metric for measuring success and failure. Three strikes and you’re out. If you make a mistake, it’s recorded in the books. Make an error and it’s quickly posted for the world to see. Same is true for most of us. We set the bar high. Sometimes, impossibly high. We set ourselves up for failure and disappointment. No wonder we often fall short of our own expectations.

But baseball, like life, also has a softer side. In Baseball there’s always a chance to comeback. You never run out of time. You get multiple chances to try again and again to get it right.

In life it’s called grace. Jesus preached it, taught it, and gave it to all of us who need a second chance. The problem is some of us don’t believe it or feel like we deserve it. Or we think it’s too good to be true.

There’s a Samaritan woman alone at a well who knows how many mistakes she’s made, how many bad choices she’s endured. If she ever forgets it, she has a whole town of people who will quickly remind her that she is unwanted, unclean, and unworthy.

Then she looks up and sees Jesus. He knows everything about her. Every flaw, every mistake, every regret. Everything.

So, what does a Samaritan woman standing at a water well in the heat of a noon day sun have to do with baseball?

I’ll give you a hint:

“It ain’t over till it’s over.”