Slideshow image

The craze in Major League Baseball, right now, is the torpedo bat. The New York Yankees hit a ton of home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers this past weekend, highlighting a new style of bat that their sluggers were using. The bat, unlike traditional ones, is shaped more like a bowling pin. The traditional bat has the thickest part at the end, whereas the torpedo bat places the greatest width of the bat closer to the handle – in the sweet spot of the bat where batters contact the ball. Bats are being custom made to each player’s swing, adjusting the widest place on the bat to where the individual player make the most contact.

It is a great study in how Jesus caused people to think anew. Religion sticks us in a pattern, much like decades of players had been stuck in a rut with their bats. Nobody thought that the average player doesn’t hit the ball, most often, from the end of the bat where the manufactureres placed the thickest part.

God tells us about a bunch of fellas who brought their buddy to Jesus because they thought that he needed to be healed from his paralysis. Jesus, instead, saw his greater need – forgiveness. (Mark 2) Jesus operated outside their preconceived notion, and a man walked out of that house free and forgiven.

There was another lame man who lay at the pool called Bethesda, waiting for a ritual time to go into the waters so that he may be healed. He had remained in religious limbo for several years before Jesus appeared and healed him without entering the water. (John 5)

How many times do we approach God with our own way of doing things, our own understanding of his Word, or our own preconceived ideas of how he is supposed to be. Instead, let's approach the Word of God anew. Let it shape you instead of you shaping it. In doing so, Jesus will help you see outside the comfortable ruts that you have formed in your life.

It reminds me of the old, but true, saying: Let go and let God!