The alarm clock goes off, startled; his hand flails around to stop its annoying sound. Silence! Through the haze the red numbers read 5:00am. The morning ritual has begun, the body is slow to move, new aches from the grind he put himself though yesterday. Finally upright on the edge of the bed, a voice says in his head, “sleep in, let the body rest!” Immediately, another voice responds to the thought, “NO!” “Today is a day to get better!”. He slides on his sweats stumbles his way to the kitchen. The rest of the house is quiet; the only thing stirring with him is the cat. His mom and dad are still asleep. He’s not particularly hunger, but he knows he needs some fuel for the morning workout. A glass of OJ and some peanut butter toast will suffice. It’s still dark outside and cold; the frost so thick its looks like snow as he scraps it off. His old car doesn’t run so well when it’s cold, but it gets the job done. “I must be the only one up”, he thinks to himself as he drives through the neighborhood. “What’s the workout this morning”, then he remembers “legs and pushes – not a light day”. He needs some energy, some motivation, some music. “Game Day Rock” on Pandora gets him going, a little angry, a little motivated. The music begins to wake him up, his lack of motivation transforms into “lets do this”. A flash of light shoots across eyes, momentarily blinding him, a headlight had bounded off the sliver cross dangling from his rearview mirror, he glances at the cross. In an instant he remembers why he is up and thinks to himself, “this is the day the Lord has made!” If only for moment, he has become reoriented. He’s energized as begins to sing along with AC/DC, “I’m back in black…”, blaring sounds coming from his car as pulls into parking lot of the gym. There aren’t many at gym this morning, nevertheless, he greets the few on his way in. After a good warm-up (which would be workout for most) he gets after it for about an hour and fifteen minutes. Quick shower and change, off to school, it begins at 8:30. On the way to school he thinks about his to do list for the day. Strength? check, I need to work on skill and speed this afternoon in practice. Biology test second period, and I need to check on the transcripts the college coach requested. He snaps into the 7eleven to grab a protein shake and bar for later.
It was his last block class of day and thinks to himself “It’s been a long day, can’t wait to get to field”. He’s typically the first to arrive and uses extra time to get his shoulder mobility exercises in as well as an activation period. As his teammates arrive as he’s finishing up and joins in with their banter before practice. In the background he hears his coach yelling “on the line”.
Practice has ended, he’s exhausted but he is not satisfied with the way he hit in BP, so he heads down to cages for some more reps. He pauses for moment in his own pursuit of perfection to offer the young freshmen a tip or two on his swing before he heads over and buries himself in own work. It’s dark and practice has been over for 45 minutes, as he walks back up from the cages, then he remembers that today is a speed day also. He reflects a moment on what his coach says “Can’t get faster if you don’t practice faster.” Wall drills, weighted sleds and sprints, another 45 minutes. As he makes his way to the car he notices how dark and empty the parking lot is, for a moment his feels lonely, so he gets into car and calls his mom to let her know he is on his way home. As he drives he thinks about what he worked on in the cages, pleased as to where he had gotten in his work.
As he sits at the dinner table he realizes how tired his body feels, his mom reminds him to say grace, they had already eaten dinner. His mother’s call to grace, reminded him that had not prayed that day, some guilt rushed through him, not because he had done something wrong by not praying but that he had felt he had forgotten about God. He thinks to himself and God, forgive me, thanks for this day and the opportunity to get better at baseball. He eats two plates of food and goes to his room to do his homework. He was in habit of reading the bible or a devotional book before he went to sleep, but that night he fell asleep in the middle of his prayers. The alarm clock goes off, startled; his hand flails around to stop its annoying sound. Silence! Through the haze the red numbers read 5:00am.
This is an example of an offering in faith. Common it may seem, but uncommon it is. There is nothing overtly Christian, or religious, about his day. There are two occasions that he shows some direct acknowledgment of God, but it’s definitely not something that’s explicit throughout the day (i.e. as though he is always praying and giving thanks to God). But that is just it; the majority of the time the offering is simply implicit in the event. No doubt, a nonbeliever’s day could have the same schedule and effort put forth to become their best at a given sport, nevertheless it’s how we approach becoming the best that makes all difference, or makes it Christian. This we will get into shortly, but for now the point is that his offering is the “all it takes” – the dawn to dusk – that characterizes the daily life of the serous athlete. This young man offers the sacrifice of limited sleep, earlier mornings workouts, pushing his body to the limits, discipline habits and conscientious practice in his effort to become the best he can at baseball. My contention is that in the midst of this offering by the athlete God shows up in unique and unexpected ways.