Baseball is Weird

I feel like baseball is one of the few sports that statistically you can be pretty bad, but still be considered a good baseball player.  For example, let's look at a baseball category called Batting Average.  In baseball a medium average is batting .250, which means you average 1 hit out of every 4 at bat attempts.  That is considered to be the middle of the road in professional baseball.

Or in other words the way I see it… is that you can fail to accomplish a task 3 out of the 4 times and still be considered decent.  In what world would this be considered OK?

Let’s continue.  A good batting average is anything near .300, which again is averaging 3 base hits at every 10 attempts.  Or in other words, you can fail 7 out of the 10 attempts and still be considered a good baseball player.  Do we really see this type of idea anywhere in our world?
I mean if we were to take baseball standards of success into real world application… it would never work!  Thank about it… Let's say you have a job, and you work 6 days a week.  But out of those 6 days of work you only come to work 2 of the six days.  Your average attendance of work is about .300 average.  If it were baseball… that’s pretty dang good.  But in actual work efficiency and dedication to the job… that can’t be a good thing!  If you only came to work 2 out of the 6 days, you are definitely getting fired.

Or what if you're a shop owner, and someone orders 100 shirts, but you send only 30 shirts to the buyer.  You gave them an average of .300 of their order.  Now again, in the baseball world, that’s good, but in life applications… that is horrifically terrible.  Now, I know… it is a bit silly to compare baseball’s idea of success in real life applications, however, baseball is unlike any other sport as well. 

Like if we played football and a field goal kicker was only successful 3 out of 10 kicks, that is considered terrible.  Or if a basketball player is only making 3 out of 10 shots taken is not very successful either.  Only in baseball hitting 3 out of 10 attempts is very good.  You just don’t see this anywhere in life or in other sports. 

And the reason for this is because hitting a baseball is quite difficult.  It is probably one of the more difficult things to do in any sport.  Nobody is going to be able to get a base hit in baseball 100% of batting attempts.  That is impossible.  But hitting a baseball is difficult and well so is life… isn’t it?  But life tends to be much less forgiving than baseball is.  Life doesn’t put you in the hall of fame if you are only successful 30% of the time of anything!  But life is tough, it’s unpredictable, and sometimes success isn’t always done by our own merit.  Sometimes it just takes a bit of luck.  Also, our failures in life are not just because of the fault of the individual, sometimes bad luck just happens. 

But again, life isn’t as forgiving as baseball.  Unfortunately, society will measure our successes and 30% just will not measure up.  But you know who doesn’t care about any of that?  You know who doesn’t keep track of percentages, averages, numbers, or attempts?

God!  God doesn’t care about successful attempts or failures.  We have a God that loves us no matter what!  And God understands that life is difficult, and that society isn’t as forgiving.  God doesn’t care about any of those things.  He will love you always, and forever, no matter what. 

The only thing that matters to God is you and that you give your best effort.  Even if your best effort may not measure up to other people’s standards, or that you make a mistake, in Gods eye, it’s ok.  The try, the attempt, and hard work is what matters.  And in the end, if you keep pushing forward, keep trying, you will find success and peace, especially when you realize you have God as your support.  So… keep swinging for the fences!  God loves you whether you get a hit or miss!

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