Devo 4 – Becoming the Least of These

Playing ball is fun but ending up sitting the bench can get tedious. If you do, you usually get set up to take part in some meager tasks around the field. 

Bat boys some times take care of these tasks, but if your team isn’t afforded that luxury, you may also do several other pregame tasks, but one, in particular, is being the “bucket man.” As players warm up with batting practice and shag balls into the outfield, guys are tasked with recovering the balls, putting them into a bucket, and returning them for use. They could also fetch foul balls, gather arm and shin guards that players drop, and replace broken baseball bats. Their main goal is to remove clutter for the batters and give them everything they need to concentrate on hitting.

Bench players could take a pen and pad or a device and track the game’s hits with a spray chart of two, and even keep the book.

After the game, some guys are charged with several cleanup duties. They have to clean up both the bullpen and dugout. Then, they are tasked with taking care of the clubhouse itself. Often they take care of laundry and complete other tasks like taking out the garbage and restocking the clubhouse refrigerator.

Who wants to do all of that? Not many. Most just want to play!

Being a Christian is desiring and fulfilling the position of the bench player with the joy of the Lord. They don’t seek the fame, but are seen along the way and are a testament to God as they do Jesus’ work. Christians should be truly invested in doing the hard work that no one else wants to do. Jesus says in Luke 9:23, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”

Again, the cross is what other people have avoided. They have avoided the pain, but as a Christian, you go to it and through it. 

The great thing is, the bench player can walk as a living testimony to the gospel -- giving up his desires and wants for his team.

Paul, the man who wrote a lot of the New Testament, was a missionary to the Gentiles. He said to his people at Corinth, “To this very hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are vilified, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer gently. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world” (1 Corinthians 4:11-13). Paul was always ready to serve, even out of his brokenness. We may never be treated like Paul in our submission in this world, but a lot suffering does come to pass for the Christian bench player. But spiritually, it’s our calling!