January 3rd: Genesis 5-6, Psalm 6-8 and Matthew 5

I remember being twelve and finally making the cut getting onto a little league baseball team. The town I lived in was big on baseball. We actually sent teams to the Little League World Series. Yeah, those 12 year olds that you see balling on ESPN, I knew them. Our town actually had minor league farm teams for kids. You know that your never going to amount to anything in the world of baseball when you don’t actually make the team when you’re that young.

I tried out for little league three consecutive years and didn’t make it. And finally, my last year I made it. A bunch of nine year olds and a girl were taken before me but I was so proud of myself. I watched VCR tapes on how to be a better fielder and hitter. I spent hours by myself swinging at phantom balls in the backyard. Why? Well, because Ken Griffey Jr. had done that as a kid. And hey, he had a video game and shoes named after him.

As I grew up, my self worth no longer rested on my lifetime .163 batting average (if you don’t know baseball, that’s bad… like really bad). But I was still influenced by what other successful people had done with their life. Authors who woke up early to write. Finding Forrester, where Sean Connery’s character urges the young student to just type to get into a rhythm. Composers that wrote volumes of music for just one famous concerto.

This morning, those stories of greatness through repetition haunt me. Cause today, I got nothing. I’m stuck in the familiar. And it’s frustrating. Trying to concentrate while I read these famously familiar chunks of the Bible. The story of Noah. The “How-Majestic-Is-Your-Name” Psalm. And the Sermon on the Mount. Having a hard time trying to see what “new” thing can I learn.

Not coming up with much. But I’m struck again by how long people lived from Adam to Noah. Can you imagine living 969 years like Methuselah? And the whole time, you’re having kids. Let’s say you pop one out every 3 years. That’s potentially 300 kids. At what point do you start forgetting your kid’s names? No wonder they had Native American type names… Sitting Bull’s got nothing on “When-He-Dies-Then-The-Judgment-Comes.”

Noah has his three famous sons at 500 years old. All his other relatives have their first kids 400 years sooner. Which makes me think that Noah probably had more kids before that. I’m not a father, but I can only imagine the grief of a father knowing that most of your children are going to die in the flood. Sure he saves three but what about all the others? Sure, you’re safe. Your wife is safe. Even three of your boys made it. But what about all the others? The door closes and a heart breaks.

Technically, if this was in fact my first time reading through the Bible, I wouldn’t know that Noah got naked-drunk as soon as he could when he got off that boat… but after losing so much… I can understand why he did it.

A swing and a miss? No worries. Back at it tomorrow.