How close can we get?

Graham started T-ball this week.

After two lessons, they haven’t even touched a bat or ball or even been shown what a “T” really is. I guess on lesson one they focused the 45 minute instruction on what it means to not play in the dirt.

Last night, I got to attend lesson two; where we moved on to what a base is and where they are. Since this is a pretty quick learning bunch and every one had retained the “don’t play in the dirt” part, they even got to run to the bases.

But, specific instructions were given…numerous times….that they were not supposed to actually TOUCH the base. The young instructor would ask everyone where a certain base was, and then tell them to run to it…BUT DON’T TOUCH THE BASE.

And in case they didn’t catch that message, he repeated it frequently throughout the process.

So 10 little tykes would take off running pretty much in the direction of the named base, aided by the fact that another leader was standing near it pointing to it. As they zeroed in on the white square nestled in the dirt, you could see that they were all trying to get as close to the edge of the base as they could without touching it. Side by side, they pressed against each other, with heads down looking at their toes, forming a child wall that was the exact outline of the base.

Judging from the continuous calling out of the instructor reminding them to NOT TOUCH the base, one could safely assume that it is very tempting to touch the base…and quite possible some of the little tennis shoes outlining this forbidden object had actually done the unthinkable and were indeed, touching the base.

As he called out First, Second, Third and Home; those little ones would run from base to base…legs pumping across the red dirt, arms swinging wildly… and then… stop and gather. Every single time; a hair away from the base.

Because human nature is human nature.

And even though we are all grown up now…we often really are like little kids seeing how close we can get to that thing we were told not to touch. We want to see how much we can get away with and yet; technically, not break the rule.

At some point, those kids are going to be instructed to make sure they touch the base. Because under the rules of baseball, it will be important that they know how to tag the base and make sure they make good contact with it  when they are rounding for home.

There are rules about the bases, because the bases are an integral component of the game.

And there are rules about life. So when we have been told not to do stuff, we really need to stand back from it..far back. And listen for further instruction.

Because obedience isn’t about seeing how close we can get to the line,  but how close we can get to the One who drew it.

Let’s have feet that run quickly to obey God…