Hope

3-20-2009
We completed our last day of baseball camps today, and throughout the week, you can probably imagine all of the questions I receive from hopeful parents. Questions such as, “What would it take for my son to make one of your Dallas Patriots teams,” and, “at what age does my son really need to start focusing on baseball over some of the other sports,” are asked regularly. I love working with kids, and I really love teaming up with their parents to help each boy fulfill his dream of playing baseball at the highest level, and today was no different. We actually had to teach an 11 year old to throw with his left hand when he had been throwing right handed his entire life! I have to admit, that was a first. His dad and his coach were both amazed at the progress this 11 year old boy had made in only 3 days, which brings me to today’s topic: HOPE!
If you take a quick peak back at the two questions I mentioned earlier, you will notice both of them evolved from a “hopeful” parent. If that parent didn’t think their son had a chance to make one of our Dallas Patriots teams, they wouldn’t have even asked me about the topic. Quick background so you can understand the situation. Our camps are held at our indoor baseball facility, Premier Baseball Academy, and they are open to everyone. We have a totally separate entity, the Dallas Patriots, which is made of the best baseball players in the country. We have teams starting with 6 year olds all the way to 18 year olds, and any kid would be blessed to make one of these teams, so when working with non-Patriots players at camp, many of them HOPE they can make it one day into our program.
I believe that hope evolves from a confidence that is instilled in you. When you are confident about something, you become hopeful, and based on the improvement at our camps, non-Patriots become hopeful they can make one of our teams. When you become confident, you become hopeful. With that hope, you become motivated to work hard at something. What are you hopeful for? What is it that keeps you going?
One of my favorite versus in the bible about the subject of hope occurs in Philippians 3:13-14, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” I love Paul’s message of pressing forward. The past is the past, and we all have one! We have all made mistakes that we wish we could do over, but we can’t. To focus on something you have no control over is wasting time and energy. You cannot rewrite the past, but you do have chapters of blank pages starting you in the face. Just as Paul had a horrible past (he was a key factor in the killing of Christians when he was Saul), yet the HOPE he found in Christ Jesus, he was able to let go of the past guilt, and focus on what God had put before him. Learn from the past, but don’t dwell on the past. The grace of God gives all of us hope that we can be, do, and have more!
In the example of the 11 year old boy and his dad, we simply encouraged them to forget the past and take action on the here and now. We cannot go back years earlier and have him start throwing left handed at the start of his baseball career, but we can buy him a glove for his right hand and start pressing forward NOW! The 11 year old was struggling at the beginning, but we continued to encourage him until he believed he could do it. Why did he believe he could make the change from throwing right handed to left handed? He had hope! Hope is the same reason Victor Frankel was able to survive the Nazi prison camps. Hope is the reason people survive cancer. Hope is the reason you continue to fight during hard times. Whatever you do, never give up! Never lose Hope! As Paul says in Philippians 4:13, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” If all of your hope is in anything other than Christ, you have put all of your eggs in a basket with holes. Understand this very important point: everything comes and goes on this earth, but Christ is the one constant that will never forsake you! Put all of your trust and hope in Him, and you can rest assured, you will never play the game of life alone.
Application:
1. What area(s) in your life is lacking in hope, and what steps do you need to take to regain the confidence necessary to restore hope? (relationships, job, fitness, etc.)
2. Where do you rest your hope? (Things of this world, or in Christ)
3. Read Luke 18:35-42…understanding that Hope in Christ Jesus led the blind man in Jericho to ask for sight! No matter how desperate your situation is, if you put your faith and hope in Christ, He will be there because He is there. Just call on Him!