Earp, You Didn't Even Try: Don't Be Haunted By What You Did Not Give Your Best At.

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me, "How do you do it all?" I would be a very wealthy man. I admit I have a lot going on in my life: full-time pastor, full-time business owner, full-time doctoral student, founding president of a nonprofit focused on revitalizing churches, writer, and hobby farmer, all on top of my main priorities of being a good husband and father.  I guess when people ask how I do it all, they are really asking, "Why do you do it all?"

Maybe this post will help explain, and it all started about twenty-five years ago.
I remember it like it just happened. I was in the fall baseball tryout season for a college baseball team. I was in position behind home plate when a left-handed batter hit a very short foul ball that landed right in front of one of the assistant coaches who, from about thirty feet away, looked into my eyes and said, "Earp, you didn't even try." To this day, I can hear his voice, see his facial expression, and remember the gut-wrenching feeling of knowing that, even though I would finish the fall season, my baseball career ended at that moment. I had a lot going on at that moment that he did not know about. I had a shoulder injury that I did not want to tell anyone about; having come from a small school of less than 200 students (k-12), I was overwhelmed by the whole experience, and I was very frustrated that I was not able to do what I had been doing just a few months earlier. I lost the job in my mind before I ever lost it on the field. That coach did not know any of that, all he knew was I had an opportunity to make a play, and I sat there and watched.

What would have happened if I popped up and dove for the ball? I have replayed what that moment would have looked like if I tried thousands of times in my mind. Sometimes, I leap out and make a diving catch, but I come up short, and every time, the coach looks at me and says, "Great effort, Earp!" None of those times can ever happen. That moment in history has passed, but when I walked off the field that day, I made up my mind that it would never happen again.  If I can help it, I will never miss another opportunity!

Now, those foul balls look different. They look like early mornings, late nights, endless writing and reading books to catch a college degree, a master's, and a doctorate. They look like the prayer, study, complex decisions, hard conversations, hurt, and sacrifice that come with revitalizing a church. They look like building a company that God uses to bless your family and many others. They look like chances, they look like risks, they look like opportunities to fail, but no matter how they look, when I finish this life, I want God to look at me and say, "Good effort, Earp!" He doesn't even have to say I was a success. I am not looking for an achievement award. All I can do is give my best, do everything I can, and fulfill every calling that God has placed on my life.

What do your foul balls look like? Are you sitting there watching it float through the air, wondering if you should make a diving catch or just let it fall?  You may be tired, hurt, frustrated, and have buckets full of reasons why you don't have to, but when the ball falls, will you be able to live with the words, "You didn't even try?"

Go get that education, start that new ministry, serve on that team, fulfill a life dream. Whatever it is, you will never get these moments back.  Don't wake up in a sweat next year because you did not do what you could have today.

'I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. '

2 Timothy 4:7-8