ON BALL GAMES AND ELECTIONS

The U.S. elections are less than a week away but before that important Tuesday there is another contest to resolve—which team will be the winner of Baseball's 2016 world series!  In the series, each team has three wins and three losses, and tonight, game seven will decide it all.  Tomorrow, life goes on but tonight the thought on the hearts of many Americans is focused on one ball game and it's outcome.  Will it be Chicago or Cleveland, the Indians or the Cubs, my team or their team?  Oh, the drama. 

All that being said, let the record show that I will be in front of my TV tonight watching the spectacle.  The truth is, however, I have no invested interest in the outcome of the game, the series, or even Baseball for that matter. I'm just a fan and I enjoy the trip every year even though my team (who for the purpose of this article shall remain nameless) hasn't made an appearance in the World Series for a while.  Still, I love it when a season comes down to one game, winner take all.

What does all this?  Probably nothing.  It's just got me to thinking about life in our world.  Life seems always to come down to winners and losers.  And, most of the time, outcomes seem to be out of the control of we ordinary folks.  Late next Tuesday night (unless this election has hanging chads issues to be resolved) the result of our opinions will be given, and on Wednesday November 9, we'll all get back in the saddle and do whatever it is we do.

As a follower of Jesus I will vote my conscience and proudly wear my "I Voted" sticker but still won't put my hope in the ways and means of people.  I seek to live faithfully and truthfully in the world as one created in the image of God.  The prayer of my life isn't, "Give me your best, Hillary or Donald."  My prayer is, "Our Father, hallowed be Your name.  Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:9-10).  Jesus convinces me that God is at work in the human story in ways I could never conceive, that He has the best interest of the world in mind, and that God has spoken into the deepest needs of the human heart in Jesus. 

So, no matter who wins the World Series or the presidency or the senate or the house, Jesus is Lord of all.  I refuse to get caught up in the political and often times, extremely harsh, rhetoric of the past several months.  I think today I will be child-like and let Annie speak for me.

The sun'll come out tomorrow Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow There'll be sun!Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya!
Tomorrow! You're always A day A way!

Whatever tomorrow looks like those of us who are followers of Jesus will need simply to get back to work, living a life that is shaped and formed by the Lord of history, the Savior of the world, and the one who continually calls us to Himself that we and our world might know the rest of God. 

Okay, that's all I've got today.  Now it is off to Pasadena and channel 11 on my TV, and a game that holds the future of the known world in his grasp.