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Mark 8:36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?

As Jesus teaches the crowd after rebuking Peter (and the disciples), Jesus goes on to teach about the preeminence of the greater things. In Mark 8:36 he asks this simple rhetorical question: which is greater, this world or your soul?  Jesus, then, answers the question with another rhetorical question, the point of which is this:

There is no material thing that is as valuable as your soul.

That was on full display this weekend as a lady (whom the internet has dubbed, “Phillies Karen”) pursued a dad that had retrieved a home run ball at a Major League Baseball game. Before she caught up with the dad, he had gifted the baseball souvenir to his son, who wore a baseball glove in the bleachers.

(Aside: There is only one reason a kid wears a baseball glove to a game – he is hoping against all odds to catch a foul ball or a home run. Obviously, this was what the kid was hoping for all game long, and his dad had just delivered it to him.)

Well, this lady catches the dad and begins an angry display, demanding that he give her the ball, claiming that it rightfully belonged to her (although, anyone who has been to a ball game knows that it belongs to the first person who gets the ball – possession is “ten-tenths” of the law in that circumstance). The father, after being publicly, persistently, and aggressively berated by this fan, chose to keep the peace. He reached into his son’s glove and gives the ball to the angry assailant who storms off.

Cameras caught it all. There was the broadcast field cameras along with all the cell phone cameras of people in the stands. The crowd begins to aggressively boo her. Nearby attendees begin to heckle her. She gets in the face of another fan and yells as loudly as she did to the dad (who now has a stunned child). When the booing and cajoling get loud enough, she triumphantly and defiantly holds up the baseball that she took from the kid, then makes a lewd gesture to the crowd.

I don’t know if she was on hand to see the hometown baseball club give a gift bag to the child. She certainly wasn’t around to see the baseball player who hit the home run, Harrison Bader, sign a baseball bat for the kid.

So – as the internet so often does - it exploded this weekend with images, videos, and memes. And it all was a precursor to my message for next Sunday. How far must this lady have fallen to embarrass herself in front of, now, the entire world just to get a baseball. You can order an authenticated game-used ball from the internet for about $50? Was that baseball worth the public humiliation? What if the public had not humiliated her selfish aggression? Was it worth $50 to show a mean spirit and crush a kid’s hopes of getting a home run? 

There is a lesser than, and there is a greater than (the symbology for lesser than is “<” by the way, just so you know).  God urges us, daily, to focus on the greater. Set your mind on His Word. On it, meditate day and night. Worship him alone. Serve him selflessly. The Kingdom of God is so much more glorious than anything this earth can hold.

Leave the lesser, delight in Jesus!

Pray for all those involved, that they may come to know the saving, healing, transformative power of the greates of all: God, himself!