As a preacher who loves baseball, my poor congregation has to hear too many sermon illustrations about the game. Last summer I used the following illustration about scouts. On this big day in the life of the scouts on the board, I offer these words in honor of your work:
Several of you have asked me this week about my time away this summer and what I did while I was on vacation. My reply has been that I spent a lot time sitting in bleachers. Stephen played on two baseball teams this summer, one made up of guys his age and one made up of players older than he is. And now that Stephen is playing with high school kids who are 16 and 17 we had our first encounters with scouts. These men who examine the skills of teenage ballplayers trying to deduce if they will make good college or professional prospects have an interesting job. They can’t look at the player as he is today because few high school kids are ready to succeed immediately at the next level. No, a scout has to look for the potential or promise in the player. Is there something about the players’ physique or swing or arm that suggests 3 or 5 years from now he could excel in the college or pro ranks? This doesn’t mean the scout ignores the flaws or weaknesses the player demonstrates, but to find the prospects he mustn’t let those flaws distract him from seeing the promise in the player. Standing between the reality of the player as he is today and the player as he might be in the future, the good scout looks for the best in the player not the worst. Faith is like that. It helps us to see the best in others, and in ourselves, even when we are stuck and tempted to see nothing but flaws.
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