April Fools

Posted on May 24, 2016 in Stan Martin | 0

I can hardly believe it’s time for opening day of baseball season. I’ve always thought that it was appropriate that baseball’s opening day is right around April Fool’s Day, because practical jokes are an integral part of baseball. It might be because of the pace of the game—it’s slower than most and allows time between plays to think about ways to haze the rookies, or what you can do to get back at the teammate who put Atomic Balm in your shorts (true story—guys are just mean).

There are the age-old pranks such as the hotfoot, where a player’s cleat is set on fire (while he’s wearing it), and the gum bubble on the hat, as well as sending new clubhouse staff looking for the left-handed fungo bats. The Detroit Tigers recently sent their new batboy on a search for the key to the batter’s box that involved the umpires and the Mets’ manager. The batboy, a college freshman named Braeden Ward, said, “I can’t believe I fell for it. I’ve played baseball my whole life. I’ve lived in the batter’s box. I played tricks like that on the freshmen in high school.” He knew it wasn’t right, but when the circumstances were manipulated the right way, he went for it hook, line & sinker.

When it comes to sin, the same thing can happen. Satan makes the situation look so convincing that we go completely against what we know in our heart is right. Sometimes we respond to a certain circumstance in a way we know we shouldn’t because it seemed like it would be okay. And then the other shoe drops. We repent and we pray for help to overcome that desire in the future. But we don’t re-think whether that action is wrong.

Other times we know what’s right, but Satan uses our feelings overcome our reason. Often this happens when someone we love is doing something wrong and our feelings for them change our minds about what’s right and what’s wrong.

This is when we’re wandering into dangerous territory. Our brother moves in with his girlfriend and we start wondering if God really cares about purity outside of marriage; our daughter is padding her college applications with half-truths and exaggerations, but it’s competitive out there, and everyone else is doing it, so we decide it’s okay. Congressman Rob Portman was a staunch defender of Biblical marriage until his son came out and announced he was gay. Suddenly Portman’s view on what was acceptable to God changed. Obviously his love for his son should

never

change, but neither does right and wrong.

We know better, but we let ourselves be convinced differently. As Caleb Kaltenbach says in his book

Messy Grace

, there’s a tension between grace and truth, and we can’t let one drop in order to hold on to the other. We’re to be full of both, just as Jesus was (John 1:14). We have to show unconditional love, but we can’t allow ourselves to change what we know is right. Because there’s a lot more at stake than a little bit of momentary embarrassment or being laughed at by our teammates.

Satan’s been pulling this stuff on people since Adam and Eve, and he’s still at it. But we have to be vigilant, because it’s a lot more serious than sending a rookie all over the stadium to find the box of curveballs.