Finding Joy in Mudville

Do you remember Casey? Poor Casey who had the entire pressure of a baseball game on his shoulders and stepped up to the plate... and struck out?

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;

The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out.

- Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer

What do you think? Do you think he ever played again? Despite failure, maybe even humiliation, he mostly likely did. There's always another at bat to try again.

What about my Minnesota Twins? Sitting with the absolute worst record in the American League, have they given up, packed their bat bags and headed for home? I sure hope not. As you are reading this, I am likely sitting at Target Field turned Mudville, but hoping the 90% chance of rain was a weatherman's failure! And hoping the Twins find success against the Atlanta Braves, who have just a handful more failures under their belt this season, and reside in the basement of the National League.

But I am with the church book study group in spirit, discussing the "failure" chapter in If You Want to Walk on Water You've Got to Get Out of the Boat by John Ortberg. I'm not sure what angle our pastor is taking on this part of the reading, but I find a profound connection between Peter's faltering steps on water and America's Favorite Pastime.

Do you know how much praise a batter gets if say, their batting a .333 average? That means 2 out of every 3 at bats end in failure. Granted, they could get an RBI and save face, but having recordable success only 1 out of 3 times doesn't seem like anything to brag about. In fact, only 3 of the hundreds of baseball players in all the Major League have a batting average better than that right now.

Yet, we are so hard on ourselves when WE fail.

Likely it isn't happening in front of a crowd of hundreds or thousands. But we still feel pressured to succeed. In everything. And feel sizeable self-deflation when we don't.

In this chapter of the book, the author reminds us it is human nature to fail. Are we still crawling around on our hands and knees? Or despite having fallen down time after time, we learned to walk, even run? As Ralph Waldo Emerson so eloquently put it, "Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but rising up every time we fail." In other words, we could respond to our failures with shame, fear, denial and blame – or we could rise with increased determination.

Do I rise after my failures? Do you?

The author shared David's story from the Bible. A man who once had everything and a quick change of circumstances sent him running away, finding no help from friends, and eventually hiding in a cave. He writes that it was called the cave of Adullam, but we might think of it as the cave named Failure. The cave is where you end up when your props, supports, and crutches get stripped away. The cave is where you find yourself when you thought you were going to do great things, have a great family, or boldly go where no one had gone before, and it becomes clear that things will not work out as you dreamed. Perhaps you are in a cave because of foolish choices. Perhaps it is a result of circumstances you could not even control. Most likely it is a combination of the two.

And we've all been there. Everyone has been in the cave.

The key is how people living in the cave of Failure find the strength to venture out. How does Mr. Low Batting Average find the courage to swing again? How does a divorced man or woman become willing to open their hearts for another try? How does the victim of a car accident find comfort behind the wheel again? How does an addict who relapsed find strength to start recovery back at day one?

How does one rise after they fall? How do we grasp the concept that just because we fail does not mean we are failures?

I'm pretty sure you know the answer. They... and by they, I mean WE... can't do it ourselves. We need God's strength. Sometimes He supplies that internally. Other times in the form of people who can help us. People who love us don't want us to fail. When we hurt, they hurt. When we're sad, they're sad. When we learn from our mistakes and becoming willing to try again, they are relieved, proud and encouraged.

My favorite baseball players didn't start out wearing a Twins jersey. They had years of failures – and successes – in T-ball, little league, high school and college first. It's true when they say every failure is a stepping stone to success.

Now it's our turn at bat. Are you ready to swing?

(While you think about that, I sure hope I am finding joy in Mudville, er Twinsville!)