Seasons

"Ecologically speaking, a season is a period of the year in which only certain types of floral and animal events happen (e.g.: flowers bloom—spring; hedgehogs hibernate—winter). So, if we can observe a change in daily floral/animal events, the season is changing."

— Wikipedia

No one seems to know who (if there was a who) invented the seasons we have today. At least not as far as Wikipedia is concerned. That's as deep as I searched. But somehow we ended up with four seasons: winter, spring, summer and football. I mean, fall. Ancient cultures sometimes used an average-sunlight formula to reckon their seasons. The day with the most sunlight was the midpoint of summer, for example, and the day with the least sunlight was midwinter. 

For some cultures there were just two seasons: dove and deer. I mean, summer and winter. There was none of this "spring" or "fall" stuff. It was just hot or cold. Black or white. Strike or ball. Some cultures, like the ancient Hindu culture, had six seasons instead of two or four. That's kind of like adding a "lupper" or "linner" to the munch day. Or just a midnight snack (which I happen to be enjoying at the moment). As the ancient Egyptians put the monthly calendar to practice, seasons were reckoned by a dividing of the months of the year. According to moon cycles (about 30 days in a cycle), that put a season at either three months, four or five. Just depended on the culture.

Of course now that summer is gone here in North Texas, it's time to look forward to the new season of life and all it promises. The weather is turning progressively (if slowly) cooler, leaves will start falling from the oaks because nature tells them to instead of dehydration, and hot apple pies will be set on every kitchen windowsill. That's what Glade told me. And the scarecrows will still not be all that scary. 

Ahhh... fall. Greeted with the scent of Cashmere Woods and ragweed, goofy pumpkins and a mild autumn breeze.

I'm ready for it. Are you?

— John

 

P.S. — I was going to make some kind of spiritual analogy to seasons of weather and seasons of personal circumstance but I obviously went a different route. I was going to make a point that we all go through seasons just like the weather. Some of us live multiple winters in a row; others are always in the spring. I know I seem to be going from winter to winter these days. Sometimes I like the cold. Other times I long for spring. And get summer instead. Seasons are funny things, you know. Enough preaching. Enjoy your first full day of autumn!

Observations from a Dugout

When I was in college, my friends and I decided to re-start a student-led sports group that had dissolved years earlier: the baseball club. You see, John Brown University used to have a powerful baseball team in the 1960s and 1970s that was led by former NL Rookie of the Year Wally Moon and even produced a major league player in Jimmy Wynn. I say "even" because JBU was about 400 strong in those days and was more known for its science and engineering schools than its sports teams.

But the baseball program was an exception.

By the beginning of the 1980s, JBU was consistently heading deep into the NAIA national tournament, playing for the title twice in three years. But the school didn't have much tolerance for the bad habits that often accompany baseball players and decided to cut the program in 1983. They cited "budget cuts" but everyone knew that it was the moral failings of the athletes that led to the program's demise.

A group of former varsity players started a baseball club after the program was cut and it survived a few years but by the time I arrived in 1995 JBU only had a group of friends playing catch every so often. So my baseball-minded friends and I added new life to the club with the goal of convincing the JBU leadership to bring baseball back as a varsity sport. We were driven. And we wanted to have post-high school baseball careers to brag about. I did, anyway.

So we got on our hands and knees at an old baseball diamond off campus, pulling weeds, painting benches, mending fences, tilling the infield, building the mound. We came to school early in 1996 to spend a week at the field, getting it ready for game action. It was small for a college field but it was our home. Thanks to my roommate Mark and his dad, we designed a new team logo, ordered new uniforms, T-shirts and hats, purchased equipment and went about promoting the team and scheduling games. We even bought team jackets with our names on the back. Mine's still in my closet.

The club went strong for two years and I tried to lead it into a third year but the career-minded life of a senior got in the way. We played high schools and adult club teams, an occasional small college, and college club teams from Nebraska, North Texas and Angelo State. It was a fun time for all of us. Frustrating... but somehow fun. We talked with UNT about starting a college club baseball league. Some of my teammates wanted to call it the "Big South" conference but, as one of us pointed out, the initials weren't so flattering. So nothing ever happened. I graduated in 1999 and moved on, leaving our equipment, leftover uniforms, trophies and other memorabilia with a friend. I never heard what happened to the club.

Until yesterday.

Eleven years later I had a desire to check out the JBU website to see what was happening with my old Alma mater these days. I knew that the school had dramatically changed since I left, going on a growth spurt that would make any 12-year-old proud. The enrollment skyrocketed. New buildings popped up, others were leveled to the ground. New sports were added, including cross country, golf and women's soccer. But no baseball or softball.

I clicked on the "student groups" link to see if anything new or interesting had formed and there it was — "baseball club."  I clicked it and memories came flooding back.

In 2004 or 2005 another group of friends decided to breathe life into the baseball club and got on their hands and knees to pick weeds, mend fences and get old Franklin Field ready for college action. It was identical to what I went through a decade earlier. They got new uniforms and scheduled games against club teams — eventually joining a new baseball conference of other college club teams and enjoyed the fruit of their labor. There were pictures on the website of some of their club action and it was wonderful to see a new batch of young men follow in footsteps they probably had no idea already existed. I doubt if they knew of me or Mark or Sam or Clint or John-Alex or any of us. But their dream was the same.

"It's baseball, Ray. Baseball."

I only have a few pictures, an old uniform top and a bum left knee to remind me of my days as a Golden Eagle baseball player. I hit .310 over two injury-plagued seasons. 11 singles in 30 at-bats. Not even an extra base hit! I stole a base or two but mostly walked, struck out and hit singles. I was the Ichiro of my day.... not!

I'm proud of what my friends and I accomplished at JBU and proud of the new group of guys who did likewise — only better. But the cycle continues. The website was last updated in 2006. I would think that means the baseball club is dormant again. The players have all graduated now and moved on with life. That happens most of the time. I'll check back in a few years to see what the next wave of JBU baseball players is up to.

But for now... I'm just glad I found out what happened... from my Flower Mound dugout.

— John

#34 — third base, second base, first base, right field and pitcher (the ultimate utility player!) Here I'm at 2nd after heading for a grounder up the middle. We were playing Nebraska's club team in Siloam Springs, Ark. I don't know why this is in black and white. It was taken for the school newspaper.

My greatest game — 4-4, 2 RBI, run scored, against an adult club team. We had to get games were we could from whomever we could, including a men's baseball league tournament in Pea Ridge, Ark.

One Picture is Worth...

LOVED this one I found through Yahoo this afternoon. It is a classic.

A cat eyes a squirrel as it makes it's way along a fence in Ormond Beach Fla., Wednesday morning, September 8, 2010. Cat and squirrel parted without incident.

(AP Photo/Daytona Beach News-Journal, Jim Tiller)

 

 

And the age-old struggle between cats and the little creatures of the world continues... What an awesome shot!


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The Role of Sovereignty & Free Choice

My pastor, Steve, has been preaching through the first chapter of Romans the past few Sundays as part of his latest sermon series and yesterday he arrived a a most-disturbing section of the text, verses 18-32. In these verses is, in my opinion, an explanation of the evil we see happening all around us and a thesis on why so many people refuse to accept the truths of God as laid out in creation and in the Bible. I know of so many who are crying out these days because of the evil they see in the world and many of those same individuals are, for reasons I cannot understand, blaming God for seemingly doing nothing to stop it. Here's the reason Paul gave for the evil: sovereign free choice.

From 1:24-29 —

"Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them..."
"God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men..."
"God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil..."

God let us have our own way, which is what we wanted in the first place, right? After all, who wants a God pulling strings and taking away our free will to run our lives the way we want?

Our God is not like that. Yet He is sovereign over all things. This is mystery — how a sovereign God could have a handle on all things yet leave room for our choices. I'm not sure I can explain it satisfactorily for you. The answer to sovereignty and free will is "yes" and "yes." So there! Scripture gives a prominent role to both, with sovereignty taking the overseeing role in all human events and bringing about the will of God in whatever manner He sees fit.

It's interesting to me, when studying Romans 1, how the interaction of sovereignty and free choice plays out in human behavior. We all have suppressed the truth about God — from unreached people groups to the Vatican. Creation declares both the might and the intimacy of God. His blessings and His curses. No one can say to God, "I did not know you existed. No one ever told me!" because every person knows that God exists and has had to make decisions based on that knowledge. And all have suppressed Him in some way to some degree. All are guilty, Paul would go on to point out in chapter 3. Even worse, we ignored the Creator and started worshiping created things, including our own selves! Humanism is our idol here in America. "I love mesa-me!" We worship ourselves and mankind in general. In other parts of the world, carved idols still exist. One trip to India will show you that.

So God said, "You want to go your own way? Fine!" His sovereignty looked on our free choices and let us wander further astray. But He did not leave His throne while mankind wandered. He continually reached down to us, revealing Himself and His holiness, calling us to fellowship, bestowing His grace, and, finally, His eternal forgiveness in His Son. We chose but God still won.

As Rich Mullins coined it: "You can argue with your Maker but you know you cannot win." The act of arguing is free will, the winning is sovereignty.

There's so much more to say but I'll stop with this: The cause of the evil and degradation in our culture and our world is God's causing only in that He let us, out of His sovereignty, have our own way. Which is what we wanted. And still want. But He never left us on our own. He gave his Son to take our wandering evil upon Himself, die as punishment to satisfy divine wrath, and become righteousness for all who choose to believe in the Son. Even as you and I continue to suppress truth and do wrong out of our choice (hopefully much less now than before we believed!), we have the righteousness of Christ to continually cleanse us and keep us in right standing with God. We choose but God wins.

I'm relieved to know that!

Be God's,

— John