“My power is made perfect in weakness.”
In 2005, one of the best Major League Baseball players was Lance Berkman. Born near Houston, Texas, Lance had the opportunity to be the hometown hero as his Houston Astros—of which he was the first baseman—played the Saint Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series. The winner would go on to the World Series.
Near the end of the game, in the bottom of the eighth inning, Lance hit a three-run homerun to put his team ahead. After the inning, Lance—a devout Christian—began to pray to God: “Lord, if you let us win this game, I will give you all the glory in the post-game press conference” – you know how that goes: a Christian-athlete, during the interviews, starts off by saying, “I just want to start off by giving credit to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ …”
And that’s what Lance was telling God he would do if the
Lord let them win.
Lance Berkman, the first baseman, said it was so quiet you could hear Albert Pujols’ cleats digging the dirt as he rounded first base.
“This is not what we had agreed on,” Lance said to God.
This was a crushing defeat.
And most people thought that the Astros wouldn’t be able to come back from such a defeat. But they did. Surprisingly, they beat the Cardinals in that series. Yet, it wasn’t happily ever after. The Astros lost (quite spectacularly) in the World Series that year.
Lance Berkman faced another crushing defeat.
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“My power is made perfect in weakness.”
Fast-forward six years to 2011. Lance was now playing first base for the Saint Louis Cardinals. And that year, the Cardinals made it to the World Series. They made it to Game Six, but were behind by two runs in the bottom of the tenth inning (this was the game that they were down by two runs and were down to their final strike, but they miraculous game back that inning). Now they were down again and whose turn was it to come up to the plate?
Lance Berkman.
Now, if you are a Cardinals fan, you remember the 2011 Game Six as the game where David Freese hit the glorious game-winning home-run that would send the Cardinals on to a Game Seven and, ultimately, to the World Series Championship.
Everybody remembers David Freese. He was the hometown hero. Born and raised in St. Louis.
Few remember what Lance did.
Lance, that year, had something like thirty homeruns. A great year. And, as it was near the end of his career, it was a special year. (In his final two years, he would go on to hit eight homers… combined). Few remember that.
Few remember that, with two outs and the opposition up two runs and Lance facing two strikes, Lance was probably going to be the one standing at the plate as the Cardinals’ season came to an end.
I can’t imagine losing not just one, but two World Series.
Before the game, Lance had prayed: “Lord, if I am in a position where the game is on the line and you give me the opportunity of being up to bat, please just give me peace.” As he approached the plate in the bottom of the tenth with the game on the line, he made that prayer again: “Just give me peace.”
And no one remembers: Lance hit the game-tying single. Not sexy nor glorious like a homerun. But it tied the game.
And in the next inning. David Freese would hit his famous homer to win it.
And get the glory.
And it was David that was the focus of the post-game interview.
I love this story because, Lance was loved in the clubhouse; a great teammate. Had perspective, leadership. Was named the National League Comeback Player of the Year and also the Cardinals’ Teammate of the Year. And part of me wonders whether that all came from having previously tasted devastating defeat.
“My power is made perfect in weakness.”
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Jesus was supposed to be the hometown hero.
The Messiah – right there from Nazareth.
But the people of Nazareth “took offense at Him.” They rejected him. Why?
Well, Nazareth was known to be a kind of armpit of Israel. When the first apostles came to Nathaniel and told him that they had found the Messiah in Nazareth, Nathaniel snorted: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46).
And the people there believed that. They didn’t think anything good could come from such a forgettable place—much less did they think that The Messiah could come from their streets.
They knew the streets. They knew each other. So, how in the world would God – well, how could power and greatness come from a carpenter’s shop? How could the Messiah come from an ordinary family? How could any prophet – how could anything good – come from Nazareth?
And so they took offense at Him, as though to say to Jesus: “You think you are somehow different from us? You think you are better than us? You are part of the same ordinary and weak stuff that we are made from.”
And Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith – for had not God, when He chose the Jews, chosen not the splendid and the powerful and the glorious, but the lost and wandering? They had forgotten their very origins: God is always choosing the weak and lowly—and employing them for the great and glorious.
Yes, he was amazed at their lack of faith—that God had chosen Moses, a slave-girl’s son, to be the greatest leader of His people; that God had chosen David, a humble shepherd, from the tiniest town of Bethlehem; that God had chosen the harlot Rahab … that God could choose whomever from wherever – even the weakest from the lowest – to be the hometown hero and the greatest.
But they took offense at Him.
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I think each of us has a little of that Nazareth in us.
We think: I wanted to do great things in my life, but as I have grown older, I have found that I’m really nobody special. I’m weak and sinful and I live in fly-over country. Nothing great will come from my life.
We think that we have to be holy or perfect or at least somewhat good before God can do something with us. I say: why would God use me when I’m so sinful? Why would God use me when I am old?
The alcoholic: why would God use someone with addictions?
The mentally ill: how could God use someone who struggles so much to see reality clearly?
Yes, all of us fall for the lie that God will only use the great and the perfect to do the great and advance the perfect.
But: “my power is made perfect in weakness.”
David Freese – did you know that, during that season when he hit the game-winning homerun in that World Series—did you know that he was battling tremendous social anxiety and depression?
Saint Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, known for incredibly sugary passages of love and sacrifice – she battled incredibly dark moments of doubt.
Saint Paul, as you heard in that passage from his second letter to the Corinthians, battled “a thorn in the flesh.” We don’t know what that was. It could have been a physical pain; it could have been a morally sinful inclination that he had – what we do know is that he asked God to take it away. Three times, “Lord, take it away.” But God didn’t take it away.
To use Lance Berkman’s language: “Lord, this is not what we had agreed on.”
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But praise God for that.
That area in your life that you are struggling with – maybe that is precisely the area that God is going to use to do great things.
Maybe that part of you that you are most ashamed about or embarrassed about—maybe that is the Nazareth that you think nothing good will come from, but from which will come the Savior.
Maybe that stuff is preciously the stuff that God wants us to bring to Him and say, “Ok, Lord, I believe that you can bring about good, even from here. Even though it isn’t perfect or holy or even good.”
And maybe that is what we should ask for: for that kind of faith. If Jesus was amazed at Nazareth’s lack of faith, I want Him to be amazed at the depth of my faith! If Nazareth believed that nothing special could come from such an ordinary armpit of Israel, I will believe that everything special can come from His work in the ordinary, even embarrassing areas of my life.
And where you couldn’t do your miraculous work there, Lord, do it here.
Jesus, you are my hometown hero.
Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI am glad you started posting again!
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