To wait on something means we have a heightened expectation that something is about to occur. Sometimes the expectation can lead to anxiousness or disappointment.
Restaurants have wait lists where you have to wait for a table. We wait around to catch a plane. We wait for the sun to rise and wait for it to set. We even apologize for making someone wait.
The longer I study people and become more aware of my own inner clock, the more I realize that not one of us is predisposed to patience. From the toddler mindset of “I-want-what-I-want-now” to someone enduring the physician’s “waiting” room, we hate to wait.
Even though we despise waiting, we watch baseball. At least, I like to watch baseball in the fall when a Missouri team is playing. Baseball tries the patience of the spectator and the player. Batters are taught to wait for a pitch. Pitchers wait for the signal from the catcher before throwing just the right kind of pitch to the batter. The infielder must wait with a strained neck on the pop-up to fall from its lofty height.
And to think, if you are attending a professional game, you paid good money to take part in all this waiting. Why? It is the expectation, the suspense. The hope that one batter will get on base or knock a homerun, or the pitcher will pitch out of a jam.
Baseball is not a constant stream of action. It is the ebb and flow of waiting on the possibilities, expecting the unexpected, anticipating the intricacies of the game to produce a win, a victory!
As I watched the playoffs this year, I couldn’t miss the innumerable analogies of baseball to church life. Yet I found so many of the analogies were connected some how to waiting. I could see how the pastor of a local church could be like a pitcher, a batter and even a general manager.
Every pitcher wants to throw heat—one fastball after another. However, that is a fast way to lose a ballgame. If the batters know all you have is heat, they will line up and smack the ball to the fence every time. Good pitchers have “the stuff” like a slider, curveball or a knuckle ball, and with pinpoint accuracy they serve just the right pitch at just the right time.
Pastors come to the mound every week. They know in their hearts if they are prepared or if they are simply serving up something sloppy. Some preachers just serve up heat where they just get louder and flail their arms. It doesn’t take long for listeners to tune out the message and the enemy has a field day.
The prepared pastor is prepared through prayer and study with the “good stuff” to strike out the opposing forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil—three up, three down. He takes his signals from the Holy Spirit, not from the press on the outside or pressure from the inside. His “good stuff” speaks in concert with what the Holy Spirit is doing in the hearts of his audience.
Pastors come to the mound every week. They know in their hearts if they are prepared or if they are simply serving up something sloppy. Some preachers just serve up heat where they just get louder and flail their arms. It doesn’t take long for listeners to tune out the message and the enemy has a field day.
Pastors are like batters, too. Every time they come to the plate, they want to knock a homerun. Sometimes you get a base hit and some days are like seasons of drought. A slump does not constitute a reason to quit or retire. The calling says you are compelled to keep on swinging, keep on praying, keep on preaching, keep on sharing your faith and teaching others to do what God commanded, keep on doing the fundamentals. How long? Until a spark occurs that ignites the aroma of God’s Holy Spirit.
Pastors are also like a general manager. General managers are constantly coaching the team, encouraging the team, thinking of better ways to maximize the team to gain the victory. Good managers work hard to help the team understand victory is the result of being the best at the fundamentals. They also know they must sometimes wait for the anticipated outcome to occur. That’s when the team really gets it together – and when that happens, there is a sense that they are invincible.
The great men of God that have touched my life were naturals at encouraging the saints. Faithful pastors know that every person matters to the Father. They focus on maximizing the ministry of the church so their local church’s ministry shines the brightest, not so much in the dugout as out on the field of play.
Pastors and baseball players both do a lot of waiting. However, while pastors wait, they anticipate a Kingdom moment when the Lord expresses His glory. Wait for it!