Embrace it
It is here! The Pumpkin Spice everything and crisp air is sneaking its way into early mornings and late evenings. I love the fall because it means football, leaves changing, and baseball! I never thought I’d say those words, but baseball has become something I enjoy in the fall as much as any other time. Ever since I started coaching baseball year round I have found the fall to be as enjoyable as any other season. The weird part is that baseball never seemed to fit in the fall before. The fall is a time where football reigns supreme, I used to get frustrated when basketball season attempted to creep in late November because I wanted an unadulterated time of focusing on football! But, as I’ve grown, and 4 kids later, baseball has become a passion for me in the fall.
For those of you with kids, you know that you love what your kids love. For those of you who don’t have kids yet, do everything you love now, because once you have kids, you will need to find ways to adopt an interest in their passions! Most of the time, the kids will gravitate towards what is put in front of them. As for me and my house, we love sports! My boys have been involved with sports from birth. However, my boys also love The Mandalorian, Henry Danger, and Big City Greens. So, not everything is sports, but they all love them!
I grew up playing football and baseball, one season went into another, with a small gap for refreshment, in between. Today’s kids are different, they play one sport and go all in at an early age. My oldest, Cayden, just started playing year round baseball last year and this year he was given a snare in their middle school marching band. Cayden earned it, he loves it, but finds himself torn. There are a few schedule conflicts between band and baseball, my advice, do both! I told him that he plays baseball all year, he needs to do something else so that his passion holds. We can all agree that too much of a good thing is too much. I love warm brownies and ice cream but not for 3 meals a day! Well, maybe some days.
Cayden will march with his middle school band for middle school football games and with the high school band for the high school games. I am as excited as he is because it has only deepened his passion for the game of baseball. While he is doing something he loves, he misses something else that he loves. Isn’t that what it’s all about? What if, as adults, we had multiple things we loved, so much that we could only do one at a time. I need better hobbies and better habits. I have just finished my doctorate and over the past 2 years my wife and I have built a baseball travel program, I am the president of our little league, we have both been in school to finish our graduate degrees, she travels to Chicago multiple times a year to go to school, we have led the church through COVID, we are moving in 2 weeks, and I’m tired. God has been clear that I need better rhythms…and rest. I love to golf, but I don’t always want to do it. I love to fish, but don’t always want to do it. But those two things are just a few of the many that I enjoy. I have always felt shameful for taking a break and I have never valued rest the way God has valued it.
I am realizing that enough is enough! I need rest and I need to enjoy some things. I have been laboring relentlessly and often times without rest. Sure, I take my sabbath every Monday, but I don’t always rest. I find myself dealing with things outside of Palms Church. Rest isn’t taking a break from Palms Church, rest is taking a break from everything. Rest is time with God, apart from the worries, fears, and troubles of the world, to sit and refresh. What is refreshing? That’s for you to figure out, whatever it is, do more of it!
