Influencers Weekly Devotional

Not Like Colavito by

Rocky Fleming

“... if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us;if we are faithless, He remains faithful---for He cannot deny himself”2 Timothy 12-13 (ESV)

Any of you baseball historians remember Rocky Colavito? Being a young baseball player watching him play as I grew up, it was something about his name that drew my attention to him. Wonder why? As I read about him and watched him play on TV, and the one time I saw him on a field, I noticed some things that seemed unique to him. First, he had an amazing arm as a right fielder. Lots of stories about that arm. As a player in the Pacific Coast League in 1956, he showed off his arm strength by hurling a baseball from home plate over the center field fence at 436 feet. As a center fielder myself who played college baseball, I cannot tell you how impressive that is to me … maybe even intimidating. Next, he was a home run hitter. He didn’t hit for an average as his stats verify, having a lifetime average of only .266, but a slugging percentage of .489. He went for the bomb and as a result hit multiple home runs in many games, and one time had four in one game, which is still rare. But, the truth is on the average, he failed to get a hit almost 75% of the time. Finally another unique thing about Colavito is he was what you would call a “pull-hitter,” which meant that the majority of his hits went to left field. Because he was a tall, strong guy with long arms, he could reach out and pull a pitch from the opposite side of the plate to left field. Therefore, to counter this, a manager would move the right fielder toward center field, and the center fielder would share the left field. It was called the Colavito Shift. When Rock hit smart, he laid off the outside slider, for that was where he was generally weakest at the plate. He got a lot of pitches thrown to him in that place, much like the enemy of our soul pitches his temptations to our weakest areas as well. To compensate for his swing and the pitcher’s placement of the ball on the outside of the plate, Colavito would crowd the plate, which made a pitcher in turn jam him inside with a fastball. Rock caught a ball in the chin or other body parts more than once, much like the enemy of our soul does to us when we overcompensate for an out of balanced condition in our life. This comparison with Rocky and his compensating for his swing sounds a lot like a Christian man who is always compensating doesn't it? This man is out of balance with his life, so he overcompensates in other areas to make up. He is out of whack with his marriage and being a dad, so he pushes hard on a stress fueled vacation to make up for it, or so he thinks. He is out of the house and an absentee father most of the time, so he tries to buy favor with his wife by giving her roses and candy and toys for the kids. He gets a hit every now and then, but he also strikes out a lot with his family using this technique. Sometimes he pulls one off the outside corner and hits it out of the park. However, like a compulsive gambler who starts to think he can do it every time, he eventually learns that the homer was a freak. So it is with the catch-up dad. He gets suckered to go for that pitch Satan throws at him and strikes out most of the time or makes a pathetic attempt with pulling off a miracle hit. Problem is, this Christian man plays on a team called “his family.” When he goes down because of his foolish strikes at Satan's sucker pitches, he takes his team down with him, for like baseball that is a team sport, a family is also a team. This man’s “team” is either a highly functioning team that is healthy, productive and hits a high average with life choices, or it is a dysfunctional team that makes bad choices many times because the star player on the team wanted only to hit only home runs. But like Colavito, this husband and dad doesn't make it to first base most of the time. The dad who thinks his game is about home runs rather than consistency might think he is a star player and serves his team well. But the truth is, he is only in the game for himself, and his team suffers the most because of his strikeouts, and the occasional home run he hits does little good for them. So what do I mean by this analogy? Let's get off the baseball field and take a look at real life instead. I mentioned balance and consistency. Here are some examples of what happens when we lose our heads in the game of life. The last few weeks, I have seen and heard real life examples of men who tried to hit the sucker pitch Satan threw at them, and it took their families down because of it. Two of these men are in their 60s, three are in their 30s. You would think the older guys would know better, but stupid has no age limits. All these Christian men cheated on their wives, even though they knew it was adultery in God’s sight, and would have consequences. One man deserted his family's love and responsibility to them, and married one of the “love interests” that came his way. The Bible calls this man a fool, and he will understand how foolish his choice was as life unfolds for him. The other men are now struggling to keep their marriages intact. All the men have children. The older men have adult children who now want nothing more to do with them. They now see both men as disgraceful, liars, cheats, and lacking personal integrity. All of these men are now in danger of perpetuating a generational sin that will reproduce in their children, unless they understand what went wrong, embrace brokenness into their life, and help their family avoid the same foolish choices they made. All of these men struck out because of a sucker pitch called “cheating” thrown by Satan, and they couldn’t lay off it. They all now have a long journey back to find respect from their wives, family members, and self-respect for themselves. But, because God is a God who remains faithful even when we are not, if they will allow Him to teach them what consistency is all about, He can lead them out of this dark place they are now in. So, where do we learn consistency? What does it look like? First we need to establish that there was only One who lived a perfect life with no sin or failures. But, there was One person who did. He had a 1.000 batting percentage in the game of life. A .300 lifetime average will get you into the Hall of Fame in baseball. But this average will cause you to fail in about all other sports, especially the game of life. It’s not a good enough average, so don’t give yourself a break guys if you think you’re measuring up to major league baseball statistics with this average at home. What would be the best we have ever seen out of another human as far as consistency and balance with his family? Was he a .500 hitter, .600, or even greater? No matter how good he is, no one but Jesus has hit 1.000! So, He is our best teacher if we want to learn how to answer the question about how to be consistent and avoid the sucker pitches Satan throws at us? What do we see in the verse above that would tell us a little about Jesus’ fundamentals, and the way He could stand strong when tempted? I think the part in the verse that says “.. if we are faithless, He remains faithful— for He cannot deny himself,” is a basic fundamental that kept Jesus consistent. What do we see? We see that Jesus knew who He was when He was tempted, and He would not allow Satan to redefine Him. The verse says, “He cannot deny Himself.” He does not allow the actions of another person to change who He is. Even to the faithless person, He remains faithful. Jesus doesn’t answer a fool according to his folly, but speaks His own words. Jesus didn’t bite on a low outside sucker pitch when He was tempted in the wilderness by His enemy, for He knew who He was and whose child He was. This self-identity made Him strong and made Him invulnerable to His enemy. Make no mistake in thinking that Jesus was above any temptations, for the Holy Word says that Jesus was tempted just like all men are. In other words by using a baseball analogy, Jesus went to bat (life), had some bad pitches thrown at Him (temptations), laid off the sucker pitches (yielding to temptations), and took a swing when He was ready (His words, His deeds, His ways). He was in total control, and there was nothing the enemy could do to convince Him to change who He is. That is why He was a 1.000 hitter during His life here. The way we learn from Jesus is to find our identity in Him, just like He found His identity in the Father. It is in the moment of temptation, in the heat of potentially making a foolish choice that we put our personal desires aside, and rely on the fundamentals that the life of Christ teaches us. The first fundamental is our identity. You are God’s child. Remember this! You are a member of the Royal Priesthood. Remember this! You are a reflection of Christ. Remember this! The second fundamental is action. Nowhere in scripture do we see Jesus react to anything. We see Him act with purpose, and it was always consistent with who He is. Your actions will also be consistent with who you are. If you are God’s man and act from that perspective when tempted, you will be consistent in your actions. If you will not be shaken from your self-identity in Christ, you will not deviate from its expression either. However, if you are trying to fake a relationship with Christ and be a poser to others, you will bite on the sucker pitches like the men I referenced, for you will react as one who has no identity with Christ. Jesus knew who He was, and His actions flowed from this identity. Sure, I understand a Christian man will not hit a 1.000 like Jesus did. But, if we are identified with Him, and seek to learn from Him, and obey Him, then we will have a growing batting average, as he teaches us to become stronger in our identity with Him, and how to avoid the low outside pitch. So men, lay off Satan’s sucker pitches. You’re a better hitter than that. Oh, by the way. If Rocky Colavito should somehow get this devotional, I will say to him now: “Man, you were a great ballplayer, and one of my heroes. I loved you. But, this devotional is not about baseball. You see, we have a bunch of Christian men on God’s team who are striking out a lot lately, and we need to help them with their batting average. I’m sure you will understand if we look to someone else with some better stats for their help. You can take comfort in knowing that I am talking about Jesus.” Your greatest fan, Rocky Fleming Download file