World Series Disciple, Part 1

The World Series was an amazing deal. I don’t know what to say! People ask me what it’s like to win the World Series, and I don’t even know if I fully understand it yet. There’s so much to take in. You know, every game in the playoffs was on the line. We didn’t play a blowout game until the World Series. Every game was so pressure-packed that it was really intense. And so it was actually mentally draining, physically draining, and then emotionally draining on top of it.

Plus my family was traveling with me, and we have our newborn baby. It was a pretty chaotic time for my wife. I think she’s really happy that we won, but I also think she’s happy we won it in five games and not seven!

But just to win, and then all the media, and all the celebrations and everything, it was so crazy. I got home and I just wanted to rest my brain, and rest my head, but I had some stuff to do. I just got done speaking at Whitworth and Gonzaga Universities with Dave Batstone from the Not For Sale Campaign. I’ve also been at a couple of schools doing leadership classes, as well as doing stuff with some college baseball teams, talking about what I think real success looks like. And I’m getting ready to do a Feed the Hunger event in Spokane!

I think everything has just been unbelievable, and I told my wife that I think it will be on Opening Day, when they put the rings on our fingers, that I’ll truly understand the whole World Series experience. Because only 106 teams have that ring, you know, and now we’re one of them. That’s going to be pretty fun to see.

But all that said, I do have an amazing World Series experience to share, and I’ll be spinning my tale here in my blog over the next few weeks. I happened to be reading a lot in scripture about judgment and forgiveness towards the end of the regular season, and it ended up playing a huge role in the postseason. I was especially drawn to the place where Jesus talks about judgment in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 6 verses 37-38:

37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

This is from the sermon that Jesus delivers to his disciples, and reading it at the time influenced my own World Series discipleship. I’m blogging twice a week now, so I’ll see you Friday. I’ll tell you how God showed me my own tendency to judge, and what happened when I asked for forgiveness.