Lent as Spiritual Spring Training

The text yesterday just seemed to lend itself to the idea of baseball and focusing on the idea of using Lent as a time of spiritual spring training.  I got the idea here at the Facebook page for The Text This Week (Facebook).  I preached from the Philippians. 

The Holy Spirit provided us our District Superintendent, Olon Mulford Lindemood who was there for our non-traditional service.  He is a big baseball fan, and I guess just another example of how the Holy Spirit operates ...

I suggested that Paul was proud of the church at Philippi.  He had some thoughts that would help them get through their season but there were a few fundamentals they needed to focus on because their goal wasn't to be good in Arizona or Florida (spring training sites) or as individuals to find themselves playing ball only at Tulsa or Colorado Springs (Colorado Rockies farm sites), but to make it to that Cathedral of Baseball in Denver called Coors Field. 

The big idea was that this is not our final home.  We are called to make this world as good (perfect?) as we can, but at the end of the day, here in this world isn't our final home.  There is tension in the idea. 

Heaven is the place to which we aspire and hope for. 

At the same time, we aspire to make this world better. 

In the movie Field of Dreams the hero meets a father he knew only after life's struggle had changed him.  The son wondered about the father but didn't know him.  In the movie, he meets him and understands better who he was.  His father asks "is this heaven" and the son he doesn't recognize yet says "No, its Iowa".  They go on to say that 'Heaven is where dreams come true.'

Lent is a time for us to pause in our individual journeys and ask ourselves where are we and where are we going. 

A line I wish I had used in the sermon from the movie is about the player who after 5 minutes of Major League fame diverts his attention to be a Doctor.  Our Iowa hero seems to think it is a tragedy that after five minutes in the Majors he turned his back on that life and dedicated his life to caring for others.  The Doctor says "Son, if I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes... now that would have been a tragedy."

I can't help but wonder on this blog if my call to be the pastor at Stratmoor Hills isn't my own version of that conversation ... insert for me the word "pastor" for the word "doctor". 

The doctor talks to our dream field builder about his life as a doctor in a small town:  "This is my most special place in all the world, Ray. Once a place touches you like this, the wind never blows so cold again. You feel for it, like it was your child."

Wow ... can I ever relate to that ...

I start off talking about how "this world" isn't our home but at the same time recognizing that our calling is to be change agents in this world.  I guess that describes the tension we all feel in preaching and leading a church.  But maybe when we really feel like we are making a difference in our little place in the world, 'the wind doesnt' blow as cold' and "you feel for it, like it was your child."


Peace.