So, we’ve been around baseball players long enough to know that drama isn’t really part of the game – unless you’re talking about a bench-clearing brawl. We don’t condone that, but it does happen. Some other competing sports (like soccer) are hard to watch for the average baseball player or fan. Sometimes it seems like if guys breathe on the opposing player the wrong way, they start convulsing. Frankly, it’s weird.
Guys that play on the clay and grass are of a different breed, right? Curt Schilling won Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS having had a crude surgery before the game, where a tendon in his ankle was sutured to his ankle tissue. You could see the blood through his sock as he tossed the rock!
David Ortiz once played through the World Series with a torn meniscus, and Derek Jeter said it was “worth the risk” playing through a ruptured appendix.
But you’re not impressed yet? We’ll have to go a little further back for these stories.
Let’s take Raymond Caldwell for example, who pitched from 1910 to 1921 (known for the now outlawed, filthy pitch called a spitball). He was reportedly struck by lightning in a 2-1 game, knocking him out cold. Thumping him unconscious for five minutes, he regained his awareness and produced a ground ball for the final out of the game.
Hey, Babe Ruth ran into a wall chasing a fly ball, knocking him unconscious too for about five minutes. It was probably a concussion, but did they test for that back then? When he regained consciousness, he got two more hits in the game.
You see, those are baseball players!
A couple days ago, we talked a little bit about Jonah and his encounter with a large sea creature. It was more than just a little encounter. Jonah had a pretty rough few days. Being in the belly of a fish for three days would set the course of the whole week to be a bad one, to say the least. However, the plus side to the story was seeing Ninevah repenting and turning toward God.
Fish-swallowed Jonah would have surely been a baseball player, but post-repentant-Ninevah Jonah probably would have been a soccer player. Here’s why.
After Jonah delivered the news to Ninevah, in his heart he didn’t want the city to be pardoned by God, even in their deep repentance, so he made a little camp outside of the city – maybe to make a case before God as he hoped Ninevah would soon perish. He was just flustered about it all.
In the Book of Jonah chapter four, during the squabble between Jonah and God, the Lord allows a plant to grow over Jonah to give him some shade in the heat of the day. It calmed his nerves a bit. Actually, it sounds like it did him a lot of good. Scripture says, “Jonah was very happy about the plant,” which is funny in itself. But then, this happened the next day!
God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint.
Oh no! Jonah’s plant!
This is where Jonah became a tad-bit dramatic.
He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
Oh my goodness, Jonah. Call the athletic trainer over. Jonah, our right-fielder, lost his shady spot. Get the stretcher!
As funny as this is, God did this to teach him a lesson.
But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
God, again, had a mic-drop moment. It’s good that God didn’t strike Jonah with a lightning bolt or something to teach him the lesson, right? He may have not recovered.
By the way - if you like soccer, no hard feelings, right?
Prayer Prompt
God, thank you for who you are. Teach me and mold me!
I’m not as tough as I think I am. I am Jonah – who can survive fish-swallowing moments but can be sensitive to things like an “east wind”. If something is even said in the wrong thing it can ruin my day. On the inside, I’m a little dramatic sometimes. Thankfully, you know my limits in whatever moment it is.
Lord, above it all, help me to be concerned with people and their souls. People are what matter most. I get so caught up in things that I forget about what is important. Help me to see the world as you see it so I can do the work you are calling me to. Thank you for waking me up and pointing me into the right direction. Put me on a course to love you and others the way you want me to.