What did I ‘receive’ in 2022? (Bot9 #343)

I like the idea that we see the work of God in our lives in the rearview mirror. I’m assuming the vehicle needs to be stopped for us to take time to reflect on what we see behind us. As I take a moment to park the car and look at the past year, I wanted to look back using my word of 2022 - ‘receive’. At the beginning of the year, I wrote about my word and used words from Teresa of Avila, a nun from the 1500s, to describe how I hoped the Lord would garden my soul “by a gentle but abundant rainfall where the Lord himself waters the garden and the soul does not work at all.” Gentle and abundant…those two words describe so much of what I received.

I received the gift of time to take my wife on 52 dates this year. It’s probably more accurate to say we claimed the gift of time because it’s always been there, but we really received it this year. We kept it on the forefront of our minds. There were coffee and breakfast dates, some dinners, and some errands to run. Regardless of what it was, we were together 52 times. It represented the gentle and abundant rainfall we both needed.

I received some surprising and challenging news early in the year when a former player told me he had a brain tumor. This news would serve to prepare me for more grief later in the year, but, in this, I received a chance to be with him through his battle and walk with his former teammates in support of him. I’d never been in a dugout with a jersey honoring someone before, and we received perspective and motivation every day as a result. By the end of the year, we received news that he was healed. No more tumor. Life back to a new state of normal. I received a chance to talk him through ending his baseball pursuits and moving on with life. As hard as the news was initially, the gentleness of the good news of remission was beautiful fruit of a well-watered garden.

I received confirmation in a special moment where a friend confirmed a crazy idea. I had been searching for a vision for helping people in the baseball community build their brotherhoods. Sharing meals had always been one of the most effective ways I’d observed through the years, including having players over to cookout. Right before I went to lunch with this friend, I thought that donating grills to coaches committed to building their community could be a great way to help facilitate gatherings. As we talked over lunch, I asked him if he had any ideas as to how we could bless one of our former players who had just started his coaching journey. He said, “why don’t we get him a smoker?” All we can do in these moments is receive them.

I received a storybook ending to my head coaching career (again). The first time I walked away from coaching, I walked away having won my first state title. This time around was very different, but so much more amazing in so many ways. We headed into the playoffs needing to beat two teams who had handled us in the regular season. One of those teams was the public school where I started my head coaching career, the team who beat us in the state title game last spring. The setting? The field at Mountain Vista High School - the place where I had coached for six years. But this story was in the creative hand who authored all of creation. We won the first game in dramatic fashion and then dominated game two. My last win would come where I had earned my first. Unbelievable. And, because we lost in the first weekend of the state tournament, I got to go watch my high school coach coach in his final game the following weekend. Again, all we can do in such moments is receive them.

I received the opportunity to travel multiple times. Our family went to Sanibel Island this summer and New York City for a Christmas vacation. I got to go to San Francisco with my dad to see Will Clark’s number be retired by the Giants. He was my favorite player growing up and the reason I wore number 22. I also had the opportunity to travel to Houston to present at a national conference with a colleague. Receiving that invitation was exciting and honoring for the work we’ve done for the past couple of years. These trips were also gentle and abundant in hindsight as the rainfall kept me growing.

Lastly, I received grief…in abundance. We saw two friends lose their daughters after long bouts with cancer. This summer I lost my last grandparent, my Grandpa Bormann from Indiana. Then, in the fall, I lost my first former player, Davis Heller. He died unexpectedly in his sleep. The day I traveled to Davis’s memorial service, we had to put down our dog, Valor. It was the first time I had to put down an animal. Then, on Christmas Eve, we lost our beloved Uncle Jack. We spent many holidays together growing up and our relationship grew with the years. It’s been a hard season but also one where the words from Teresa of Avila lived true - “the Lord himself waters the garden and the soul does not work at all.” My tears have watered the garden and all the soul could possibly do is receive.

When you look back on a year with a word like ‘receive’ and reflect on all that the Lord provided, what can one do but react with gratitude? I’ll be looking forward to sharing my word for 2023 next week, but I’m going to spend another week allowing my soul to be at rest and be thankful for all I received in the past year.