Submitting to THE Story (Bot9 #333)
There was a lot happening in my world and the world at large in the fall of 2001. I was starting my first year as an English teacher, head baseball coach, and offensive coordinator at a brand new school. My days were spent moving from teaching writing and literature to swinging a bat to helping young men score points on a football field. On one beautiful fall morning in the midst of all of that activity, I was shocked along with the rest of the country by the events of 9/11. Having been through a number of things personally in the years previous (as I outlined through my testimony this past spring), I also decided to submit my life to Christ that fall and was baptized in October of 2001.
I continue to learn more and more about what “committing” or “submitting” your life to Christ means. You submit your life to Jesus, yes, but you submit to The Word that became flesh (as outlined in John 1). You choose to live by the Book, the story of life provided in that living and ancient text, and choosing to shape your life to it. This is something that any coach of a game can understand. Baseball coaches and players develop a clear story of how the game should be played. We judge one another based on this narrative. I do it, everyone does it. The game is only 150 years old or so, but there is a narrative inside of that game. It is a common understanding and respect for interpretations of how the game should be played. Old school, traditional people believe in a certain narrative. New school, progressive people believe in creating some new narratives. Most of the time, people come to a common understanding and respect because the truth is generally in the middle. We submit to the story and play the game together.
Submitting your life in sport to the narrative of the Lord, Jesus Christ, is one of the hardest things to do in this world. It’s easier to just play by the rules of the game and not worry about the teachings of Jesus while participating in sport at the same time. But there comes a point in time in everyone’s life when just coaching or playing for the sake of playing comes to an end. There has to be a greater purpose to the story being written in the world and in sport. Winning doesn’t quench the thirst as it once did and you need to drink the water of the eternal (John 4:13-14).
I’ve only seen one team do this together and on a stage for all to see. The Oklahoma Softball team who won the national championship this past year did just that. They wrote an incredible story of skill and execution on the field, but they also submitting to the story of Christ in their lives. We heard them tell the story of Peter’s faith getting out of the boat and walking on water at their press conference. We heard them singing “Nobody but Jesus” in the outfield after their win. That’s submitting to the story, the narrative written for all of us. The mistake we make is thinking that we have to win to glorify God. No, we submit to the story no matter the circumstances of our lives. We love when we win like the Oklahoma Softball team did, but we rejoice in the losses as well. May we all continue to learn how to submit every corder of our lives to the story written for this world since the beginning of time.