Swinging the Self Bat

Good Saturday morning! Okay, the baseball seasons are going strong, so it's time for us once more to have some sort of weak sports analogy. The subject came up again, as it does from time to time, about how hard we are on ourselves. Yes, the worst critic of me is usually me, and you are most often your own harshest critic. Imagine for a moment that we are watching a baseball game. Live, on television, whatever you like. If you don't like, at least try to bear with the story teller for just a moment or two.

Casey is on the bench today because he is overused in a famous story. The first batter we see for the Provencal White Sox is George. I like George as a plumber, so he might as well spend some time on the ball field this morning. George approaches the plate, does the thing batters seem to do like whacking his cleats and adjusting his ensemble, then steps into the box. "Play ball" calls the ump, and the pitcher winds up. The ball is thrown, and suddenly George takes a mighty short swing and whacks himself on the leg. What in the world?

For lack of any idea which rule covers this, the ump hollers, "Strike One!" After all, George did swing and the ball was thrown as per usual. The pitcher shakes his head; the catcher is rendered speechless, and the ump tells them to play ball once again. The throw, the play at the plate... George whacks himself again! Now the entire crowd is silenced. Is this some new and strange play? Something to distract the fielders perhaps? We may never know, as with the final pitch, George takes a bigger swing and succeeds in knocking himself out cold.

Of course this is crazy talk, or George has gone 'round the bend, or something. No batter would take his wood or aluminum batting stick and smack himself. Yet, when it comes to criticism, we often grab a figurative self bat and proceed to whack away at our self-respect, ego, love (as in loving your neighbor as your self), and even our ability to face others with our head held up, if we beat the poor self enough with this bat. Yes, a accepting criticism and feedback does help us learn to treat others with respect. While we are doing that though, let us learn to treat the self with respect too. After all, Jesus loves that self with an everlasting love!

Bucky