Musings from an old wooden bridge

Honus Wagner was too small to play professional baseball. To make matters worse he was bowlegged. However, defying critics and sportswriters alike, he became one of the greatest shortstops to ever play the game. By the time the Flying Dutchman retired in 1917, he had set enough batting and fielding records to become one of the original inductees into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. When asked about his amazing journey and his ability to overcome the odds, he famously replied, “There ain’t much to being a ballplayer if you’re a ballplayer.” In other words, if playing the game is in you, then everything else comes with practice. At the core of Honus Wagner there was a ballplayer dying to get out.

This is true of all of us. We have all been given gifts and talents by our Creator. The drives and passions within excite our interests, and if given enough attention, these intrinsic ambitions become reality. Life is organic in nature, and thus, operates on this principle. The seed determines the ultimate expression of the plant as it grows. Now, what is true in the natural world finds its equal manifestation in the realm of the spiritual world. Humanity, born from the seed of Adam, will display a sinful nature until a different seed is planted that changes this dynamic. That seed is the life of Christ planted in us at the moment of the new birth.

In its simplest definition, the Christian life is the outflowing expression of Christ’s life in us. There are many doctrines to learn, but this singular truth is the starting place for growth in the spiritual life. The Bible declares that Christ dwells in the life of the believer. In the same way that blood courses through our veins, he channels his life through us. This life-giving source is as sure as the evening tide and as faithful as the rising sun. Irrespective of what we see in the mirror each morning, or how our mood swings, we know that his life abides within. We rest on this unchanging truth regardless of our experience of it.

Throughout Galatia, the apostle Paul agonized to see Jesus expressing himself through the believers. He wrote, “My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” Progress is accomplished organically, not with the machinery of effort, and that is the key. Growth is the essential need and faith is the wheel that turns the turbine. In the case of Honus Wagner, he was born to play baseball. Likewise, in the case of the believer, we are reborn to express God’s nature, and again, this is accomplished in a very intrinsic, organic way. Consider again nature as an illustration. The seed of every living thing contains the entire blueprint of the plant or tree. All it needs is to be planted in the soil and given the right conditions for its growth and expression. Nature takes its course regardless of our fretting and hand wringing.

Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” Our great need is to rest and trust the work of God, not a “pull yourself up by the boot-straps” mentality. Peter stated, “According to his divine power he has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to knowledge and virtue.”

As a result of our Christian growth, the outward manifestation of Jesus Christ is revealed. This expression is simply an outgrowth of the inward reality of the Holy Spirit. To borrow from Wagner’s home-spun observation, “There ain’t much to being a Christian, if you’re a Christian.”