Tag Archive

I finally got to see the movie Moneyball after pretty much everyone else in the free world had watched it already. Sort of fits with my journey. For the few of you out there who are not a. baseball fans or b. Brad Pitt fans, I’ll quote IMBD and tell you that Moneyball is, “the story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.”

Not the greatest movie I’ve ever seen, but what an inspirational story. Billy Beane, after being a major disappointment as a player, finds himself in a no win situation with a team that has no payroll but still wants to compete with the New York Yankees and other big market teams. They have a decent season and then lose all their best players to other organizations. All the veteran baseball people on Beane’s staff try to go back to business as usual and rebuild the team the way baseball people have been rebuilding teams for as long as the game has been played. But what does Beane do?

He says that’s crazy. To try and play by the same rules and go through the same motions. And expect to be successful. Isn’t that the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? So, instead, he goes completely off script and breaks every law and rule in baseball. And what happens? They win. A lot.

I think if Jesus were a general manager for a baseball team, he’d look a lot like Billy Beane. After all, look at the twelve disciples. Not exactly Yankee material. There were no Derek Jeter’s in that bunch. It’s hard for us to remember that God is actually very unorthodox. He does whatever it takes to win our hearts. He doesn’t need a script. He doesn’t bow to tradition and ritual. He doesn’t just keep grinding it out. He adjusts to the situation and reaches for us in very creative ways.

That’s been my story. I had stopped reading my Bible, wasn’t regularly attending church. Wasn’t really actively pursuing God. It took a while, but in the end, He showed up in His own way and reached me with non traditional tactics. I ended up on the road back to Him because He didn’t play by the rules. He played Moneyball.

I’m more spiritually awake than ever because of it. After sleep walking for 25 years, I finally stopped going through the motions. That’s almost as long as it took me to find two free hours to watch the movie. And so, I also am committed not to be chained and restrained by the way things have always been done and the way they are supposed to be. My ultimate role model has demonstrated to me that He doesn’t play by those rules. So why should I? Wouldn’t it be so much more effective for me to simply pursue Him and follow where He leads me? Unfortunately, that feels rather odd to a lot of people in our society today. But I’m with Billy Beane on this one.