Daily Jewel

by J.T. Carnell, McAlester, OK
Aug. 4, 2011

“When Greed Gets in the Way of Goodness!”

“God’s curse blights the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the righteous..." – Proverbs 3:33 (The Message)

The “Dog-Days” of summer are upon us. For many of us baseball fans the month of August is the time that will either make or break our favorite teams. I remember as a child, listening to the radio every night—KMOX in particular and to the voice of Jack Buck announcing games for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was the best I have ever heard in describing the game. It was as if I could picture in my mind what was happening even though my eyes could not see it. In many ways, the current climate of our society where greed and selfishness is often the rule wormed its way into the game I loved so much as a child and changed not only how the game is played—it lost the support of millions as well. Much of that is due a player strike during the summer of 1994. The players went on strike near the mid-way point of the season and for the first time since the beginning of World War II, the World Series was cancelled. In the spring of 1995 newspaper columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote an article explaining why the 1994 baseball strike dealt a fatal blow to many baseball fans: "The cancellation of the [World] Series reduced the entire '94 season to meaninglessness, a string of exhibition games masquerading for a while as a "championship" season. No championship, no season. The real scandal of the '94 season is not the games that were canceled but the games that were played. The whole season was a phony. The fans who invested dollars and enthusiasm in the expectation that the winners and losers and homers and averages would count were greatly cheated. More than cheated. By canceling the season in a dispute over money, the players and owners mocked the fan who really cared whether Ken Griffey or Mark McGuire would break Roger Maris' record or whether Tony Gwynn could hit .400." Since that time the average salary for a major league baseball player is over three million dollars a year. That is the average! So why is this important? Because the more home runs a person can hit the more money he will make so to produce more home runs a number of players since the ’94 strike used performance enhancing steroids/drugs to produce the power and strength to hit the home runs. Essentially—they marred the game, tarnished their names and their records and has caused a blight on the game that millions have loved for years. The purity and goodness and innocence of the game has been replaced by a greed that in my opinion has destroyed the game of baseball and is also destroying much of all professional sports. But just as hitting records and the World Series give meaning to the regular season—for Christians, the Judgment Day gives meaning to our lives! Because God will call every deed into account, everything we do truly matters. How we live our lives determines how we will be seen by the One that truly matters. If we live entirely for ourselves—without any regard for others it will be evident. If it were not for the “fan-base” professional baseball would cease to exist. Similarly, if we give little to no regard for the Church—God’s “fan-base” and the Body of Christ, then once again our lives carry little meaning save only for our own existence. In conclusion, these words come to mind from the writer of the book of Hebrews: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:1-3, NIV)
Pastor J. T. Carnell