I love spring time! It is like an appetizer for the main course, which would be SUMMER!! The flowers and weather are great, but my favorite part of spring is BASEBALL! I get excited during the beginning of every baseball season because of the championship possibilities it promises for the Dodgers! “This may be the year” is something you’ll hear me say at the beginning of every season! Baseball is a sport totally dependent upon teamwork. Success is achieved when every player performs at his best; especially the relief pitchers.
Relief pitchers are called upon later in the game to replace the tired, and exhausted starting pitchers. A relief pitcher sits in what is considered a “bullpen” and usually comes into the game during a crisis situation. When things get hairy and rough and the bases are loaded you will see the manager go to the mound, and, with faith and hope, call in his relief pitcher.
A relief pitcher does exactly that, he brings RELIEF. He is not called upon until there is trouble and knows that his duty begins with a deficit that needs to be corrected. When things are going well for the starting pitcher, there is no need to call in a relief pitcher. The relief pitcher just waits until he is needed and then responds to the call.
How many of us treat the Church and our God like a relief pitcher? Do we only call upon the services of the Church or our God when we are in a deficit or in a crisis situation? I think that a lot of us can (and probably should) admit that this is true! When things are going well like our health, family life, and finances, we mainly expect this to continue and don’t look over at our bullpen. But as soon as the tiniest of concerns poke their heads out, we look over to the bullpen and call for relief, which is God.
This kind of relationship with God is not healthy. We should not treat God or His Church like a relief pitcher, only calling when life becomes difficult. This would mean that God and His Church are merely an aspect of our lives rather than the foundation, meaning that we only seek to gain from the relationship and not offer anything to it.
This is exactly how our opponent, the devil, wants us to approach the relationship. He lures us into a belief that we can handle life perfectly, without the guidance of God and the Church, thus keeping us from further developing and strengthening our spiritual connection. This leaves us despondent during difficult times, minimizing our relationship with God and His Church to that of a Genie in a bottle.
A healthy relationship includes open communication. To continue the baseball analogy, God and the Church should be our Manager or Head Coach rather than a substitute player! We should be dependent on God for all that we have and don’t have, we should be thankful in good times and in bad; we only recognize the good when compared to the bad. Allowing God to be our Head Coach or Manager makes us subject to His will; this is a goal for our lives. Trusting that God’s will and all that we encounter are part of His Divine Plan allows us to fully recognize God’s supremacy.
In September I set out a list of goals for us to accomplish as a Parish Family here at St. Demetrios. As we set out to confirm our bond with Christ and His Church, let us review these goals: We desire to 1.) Attend Sunday services regularly and promptly- Orthros begins at 9:00 AM and Divine Liturgy at 10:00 AM, 2.) Pray daily- offer morning and evening prayers to our Lord, 3.) Volunteer- offer your time to your Church, 4.) Invest in the Word of God- read the Bible regularly, and 5.) Forgive- mend relationships that have deteriorated; offer and ask for forgiveness!
God should be more than a crises hotline and the Church more than just social outlet. God and the Church should be the focal of life rather than on the peripheral. We need to establish a bond of Faith that cannot be divided by the simplest, or even the most complex, circumstance.
