Lessons from Baseball

Once again, Japan has won the World Baseball Classics championship!

After playing terribly at the Beijing Olympics, trying to retain the WBC trophy from 2006 seemed an impossibility.

Despite a very shaky start, however, the team (aptly named "Samurai Japan") beat one strong team after another to win the title a second time.

Watching the exuberant welcome back given to the Samurai Japan team, I glimpsed anew what words like "honour, glory, praise" mean.

Bathing in genuine delight, evident pride and overflowing love is honour and glory; the giving of these is praise and worship. And whichever side one is on - giving or receiving the glory - it's exhilarating; it's euphoric.

And so I grow in anticipation for the day when we will, more than a million times, multiple this euphoria in the praise and worship of our Lord Jesus.

There are other lessons I learned from the WBC.

"We want to show the world what Japanese baseball is", "We want to show our children the joy of baseball", "Many children will be inspired to play baseball," are some often heard comments on Japanese TV.

And it struck me: this is exactly what we are trying to do in evangelism and mission!

Not because we pity people, not to swell our churches and add to our success, but simply because the joy of loving God is so great, and because we are so proud of our heavenly father and so fond of him, that we want the world to see and be inspired to taste the goodness of it.

Finally,
One of the reasons for Samurai Japan's success was its superior team spirit and unity.

"They really became one," was on the lips of many a commentator.

Japanese really understand and relish the joy of being one.
For instance, the theme of Tokyo marathon is "The Day Tokyo Unites".

May we, who are called to be one in Christ, truly live out what it means to be one, not striving for personal success or glory but loving one another and working together towards a common love. Then will not our Japanese friends, when they see the Oneness in Christ, be hooked on that beauty?