Are We Really "Fine"?

Sometimes we say things because it is more of a habit.  We say things that we are accustomed to saying but do not really have any meaning behind what is said.  For example:  Passing someone at the grocery store "Hi, how are you?", "fine, and you?" (said with a smile and never breaking stride).  It is habit.  Are we honestly prepared standing in the middle of the potatoes and onions to commit to how we are "really doing" or to stand with an earnest ear to what may go well beyond "fine"? 

Some of you may know that we are a baseball family - like forfeit nice vacations, void sleeping-in on the weekends, tons of dirt in my washing machine, weekend diet of processed foods, sunflower seeds, and bottled water kind of family.  And every year that we travel with my son's team, we add another baseball family to our family, it keeps growing.  Our solid maple, pine tar on the trunk family tree has many branches.

We had a family join us this weekend that we haven't played with in a couple of years.  And as the weekend came to an end and we parted ways, I said "love you guys".  It just came out, not really as something I say out of habit, and I got a little choked up because...I totally meant it.  I love them.  All four of them.  I love their unpretentious kind hearts, their genuine friendship, their eagerness to help out when the call is made, and their ability to pick up right where the bat was dropped.  

We visited my grandparents a couple of weekends ago, my cousins were in and we all got together for lunch.  And as my grandma called us to eat, we stood in a circle and grasped each others hands and my grandpa began to pray.  And I was overcome with such emotion.  I didn't want to be "that person" that was weeping at a simple prayer over a simple meal prepared by many hands, so I swallowed...hard...that lump in my throat.  Overwhelmed with how much I love that man, how I love to hear him pray, and overcome when asking God "how many more times might I get to hear him pray Lord?".

And why can't I allow myself to be "that person" who has heart-to-hearts while selecting a head of lettuce, who cries when her grandpa prays?  It is habit for me to stand strong and appear "fine".  I want to work on being more of the person that without shame blurts out "love you" and sheds happy tears when someone she loves prays over a meal.  I want to be so moved by God to be who He created me to be with no reservations. My May Insight Devotional says:

Human beings are not designed to walk through the world alone.  We are made for relationship, which God gladly supplies.  We are both independent and interdependent, each needing others in order to function well.  We require support from our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We may feel alone when we are up to bat at the plate, but we have a whole team, a family, standing at the fence cheering us on.  We just have to be willing to watch some balls go by and take a couple of strikes before putting ourselves on base.  There is no such thing as perfection in baseball, or in life.  It takes tremendous courage to put ourselves out there and know that we may "appear to fail" more than 50% of the time. 

Hebrews 3:13  But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "today", so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Satan is a manipulator - he wants us to think that our sacrifices aren't worth it, that we aren't brave in our choices, and sometimes, merely, that everything is "fine".  But when we are around people that encourage us daily, weekendly, familiarly, unassumingly, and humbly...We can love like my boys love baseball, we can watch our friends walk away knowing that that are family, and we can shed happy tears when we pray over our produce. 

May you have an encounter this week that leaves you feeling like you hit one over the fence!  Amen.