”Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.” Ecclesiastes 9:11
One of the reasons that sports is so popular is because of the reality to which this verse speaks. Watching a game wherein the rules are perspicuous is an escape from life’s often bewildering, even maddening, variances. Let’s face it: we’d love more guarantees. We’d love to find an escape from our anxieties. The Bible knows nothing of secular man’s current obsession with race and sex. It speaks of two races: we are in Adam, our father according to the flesh, or in Christ through grace and repentance of sin.
Adam or Christ.
Or, if you will, Satan or Christ.
So, like Adam, we may very often find ourselves cowering behind a bush – naked and ashamed. This is the state of sin. It cowers from God rather than seek Him (He’s never hard to find), worship Him, and obey Him in faith. The lack of peace of our souls is because of sin, not some disorder or another. Sure, a disorder may be diagnosed but depression and anxiety are not “just because” but because of our separation from God. And this doesn’t just mean the unregenerate but also the church too! After all, the Preacher has called the people of God together for this lesson we call Ecclesiastes. This is the big picture, so to say; don’t live under the sun but live by faith (Romans 1:17).
Back to sports.
I love baseball. And one of the great things about the game is that it’s famously quirky. It’s the only game where the defense has the ball and it’s the ball itself that one plays against…out of the pitcher’s hand, off the bat. It’s a game wherein the best players literally fail every game. A great hitter might strike out a hundred times in a year (these days even more) and will without a doubt fail to reach base nearly seven times out of ten tries. It’s a game of intense concentration, long lulls followed by explosive action. It’s a game of strict rules: some written in the rule book and others on the heart.
Well, one of those so-called unwritten rules is hustle. It goes like this: a batter hits a fair ball and is expected to run full speed out of the batter’s box toward first base. Where or how hard he may have hit the ball is irrelevant. Hustle dictates that once the ball leaves the bat, the ball is beyond the hitter’s control and now the hitter is a runner. So run!
A dribbler down the third base line? Run.
A “routine” grounder to short? Run.
A high blast toward the left field wall? Run.
The answer is always the same. Run.
Why? Well, for the simple reason that the only thing the batter/runner can control is his own effort at this point. Maybe the high blast goes over the fence for a home run. Maybe it bounces off the outfield wall. Maybe it’s caught. The batter/runner doesn’t know. Maybe the “routine” grounder is bobbled by the shortstop and by running hard the batter is safe at first because the throw is late. Maybe the dribbler down the third base line rolls foul. Or maybe it stays fair and by running as fast as he can the runner forces the third baseman into a bad throw. And then he ends up on second base because of the error.
Again: run. Hustle. Always hustle.
That’s always been the unwritten rule and it was, at least until our collapsing society started to catch up to America’s purest game, sacred. Today there are mega-stars that routinely stand at the plate and watch a ball they hit, that they’re sure is going to be a homer, not, in fact, clear the fence. In one case, the incomparable Ronald Acuña of the Atlanta Braves, in a playoff game no less, ended up with only a single after he stood at the plate like a vain doofus instead of running. It should easily have been a double. At least.
Anyway, this is the point of our passage. It’s the point of much of Ecclesiastes. Hustle, Christian…hustle! Why? Because you don’t know what that ball of life is going to do. God is in charge. That we know. And we know that there’s no condemnation for us (Romans 8:1) but past that we have no idea how our path in life is going to wander to that finish line of Judgment. No idea. So, hustle. Run.
But run in faith. And that’s the thing. A baseball player hustles because it’s the one thing he can control. It’s the same with us in Christian life. But the player doesn’t know how the game or the season will turn out. In the game of baseball his team may lose and ultimately finish the season 20 games out of first place. He may even be traded or cut that autumn. But the Christian knows that the tomb is empty! He knows that neither height nor depth, angels nor rulers, suffering or hunger, or anything else in all creation will be able to cause him/her to “lose” Jesus Christ! So we run for heaven! We run for a crown and a Kingdom that we can’t see yet but is certain to come!
Don’t say to yourself, “well, things are going well for such and such…and he’s a terrible sinner and horrible person, so why bother being faithful.” And don’t say, “…no one can know what’s gonna happen…so anything can happen, so why pour my heart and soul into things?”
We must not let life’s crazy and weird bounces – like a ball bouncing oddly off an outfield wall – discourage us. We must not let life’s apparent injustices cause us to lose zeal and hope. Focus. Hustle. Christ has got you!
Those of us who are righteous by faith live and work in that faith. We hustle.
”After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”“
Joshua 1:1-9 ESV
To us, we have John 6:29: “and this is the work of God, that you believe on the One whom He has sent.”
Yes, indeed. Let’s do that work today and everyday. Let’s hustle.
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