Leaving Your Mark (Bot9 #293)
I’ve got some deep thinkers in my baseball program. Sometimes that can be a bad thing on the field if they think too much, but this past week it was a good thing. I had a couple of them in my office (with masks) just talking. One of them had recommended a YouTube video previously so we watched it together. The subject of the video was the cave in France known as Lascaux (here’s the link to the video we watched if you’re interested).
Lascaux is a cave discovered in 1940 in France by four teenagers and their dog. Inside the cave are many paintings of animals believed to have been created around 15,000 years ago. It’s one of the oldest examples of art in world history. This was an interesting factoid, but it was the negative images of hands that stuck with me. The people who lived in those caves would put their hand on the wall and spray paint through bone to create a negative image of their hand (see the picture above). It’s an ancient example of every person’s desire to leave some sort of mark on this world.
There have been a number of people who have left the same indelible mark on baseball history. Branch Rickey is one - he created the modern farm system and signed Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier. Babe Ruth made home runs popular and was the game’s first superstar. Curt Flood ushered in free agency. Dr. James Andrews has saved the careers of countless players through the creation of Tommy John surgery. Bill James and Billy Beane’s combined mark on the game is felt through today’s emphasis on analytics. In their unique ways, they placed their hands on the wall of baseball history and painted an image for all of us to remember.
Baseball people are unique in their respect for the game and recognizing it as something bigger than themselves. There’s a humility required which only grows with age. In our youth, we may hope to leave the same kind of mark as the greats. As we continue, our yearning for greatness wanes and our desire to impact individuals increases. We stop playing and either become an appreciative fan or a coach at some level. Things flip inside of us as we realize the game has left an imprint on us far greater than anything we did for it.
The Christian life has the same cycle. We can’t really leave a mark on “the faith” but we can point people to the One who will leave an indelible mark on every soul He touches. Jesus has left an indelible mark on this world and this is undeniable. It’s our call to be nothing more than another hand on the wall reaching towards Him with one hand while reaching towards more people pulling them to Jesus with the other.