As many of you know, I am a die hard St. Louis Cardinals fan. My early years of life were spent living in Southwest Missouri which is a hot bed for Cardinal fans. To put it frankly, the Kansas City Royals are pretty much a forgotten team around those parts. So, if you keep up with MLB you know that the Cardinals are red hot this year. The pitching is excellent and they have the best baseball on the planet, Albert Pujols. Before he is done with his career he just might be the best that ever played the game! The cool thing about Albert is that he is not just a great baseball player but a great person as well. A Godly young man who gives all the glory to the Lord and by the way, he is steroid free. That's right... he is doing it right. Can you tell I am passionate about it? I have Pujols shirts, Ryder has a Pujols jersey and don't tell him but my plan is to get him a Pujols Fathead for his birthday next month. Now that I have laid all this ground work, let me share with you the point of this blog.
The other night I was up late watching the Cards take 2 of 3 from the mighty Dodgers in LA. The game was tied at 2 late in the game when Pujols came to bat. The Dodgers got lucky as he safely got aboard with just a single. However to everyones surprise, Manager Tony LaRussa, gave the steal sign and Pujols took off for second on the first pitch to the next batter. This was a complete surprise and a huge risk since Pujols doesn't posses lighting speed. It was such a shock that the Dodger's catcher rushed his throw and threw into center field allowing Pujols to take third. Pujols later in the inning scored on a sacrifice fly and the Cards took the game 3 to 2. What a great risk yet a great call by one of the greatest managers MLB baseball has ever had, Tony LaRussa.
As I watched this all unfold on ESPN that night God used it to speak to me. Yep... He'll even use Cards baseball. I tell you baseball is God's sport. It is trinitarian. Great managers take risk to win the big games. Sometimes it works out and win and sometimes it doesn't go so well and you might even suffer a loss. The point, you'll never know until you take the risk. That is what we have done here on the 380 Corridor. When Sarah, the kids and myself left the comforts of a great ministry staff position at Midway Church to start this new project there were a lot of unknowns. We took a risk not knowing how all of it would work out. We knew it might be a smooth endeavor and we knew there might be some bumps in the road. But in the midst of all of it we knew we had a great manager... the greatest one ever... our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So how has the risk worked out? Glad you asked. COC has grown from 20 to 24 people in a house setting to well over 260 people who know call it their church home. 41 folks have been baptized with another 8 to 10 lined up for this coming Sunday's Baptism Celebration. Over 40 people have meet Jesus for the first time in their life and made Him their Savior. We have 135 kids playing Upward Flag Football & Cheerleading in our first season ever! Families have been put back together, teens are fired up and sharing their faith daily and the name of Jesus is being made more famous on the 380 Corridor. All glory and honor goes to Him and Him alone but sometimes I would like to think that it also has a lot to do with following our great manager to take a huge risk not knowing how it would all play out. Life is filled with risk and those who are unwilling to take them usually miss out on a lot of great stuff. I thank God that He gave me the spirit of a risk taker. I thank God that He has challenged me to get out of the box of religion and seek a REAL ationship with Him and with others. As COC approachers her one year anniversary on September 13th I invite you to join in celebrating with us the incredible God we serve and the fact that when you step out by faith... HE SHOWS UP!
