For One More Day

As Spring Training inches closer and closer to when the teams break camp for the season, there is that certain 'day' when a player learns of his destiny for the upcoming season. No matter how many years someone has been around the game, seeing the sadness in the eyes of a teammate and friend who just found out he has been released is one of the sickest feelings this game brings. It is inevitable and part of the profession of baseball but even in the business side of this, there are real people with real dreams that end each Spring Training. At the other end of the spectrum, seeing the eyes of a player who made a team who had worked hard the entire off season and fought tooth and nail for every at bat and play to keep a jersey on his back for the 3rd, 5th, or 15th season is special to see. The silence in the locker room that day can cut right through you as guys walk towards the list of teams. My question is where does one's Hope lie? Is it in a game, in a ball or glove, or elsewhere? I know that no matter how long I play this game, one day it will fail me. My arm will lose it's strength, my legs will slow and weaken, and no matter how much my heart still wants to dive around the infield my body will fail me. So my question remains, where does my Hope lie?

Psalm 62:5-7 says "For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress, I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge in God."

My hope isn't in a game, in a decision from the front office of my team, or in my body to carry me through, but in the Lord! I can compete fearlessly, play freely, and know that in the end I trust that God is in control of my baseball career. Realizing that baseball will end one day I play with a reckless abandon out of a grateful heart that I still get to do this...for one more day!