| Pastor's
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by Buzz Dahlen I had a baseball umpping experience this past week. I was originally scheduled to ump three games on Thursday and Friday and two games on Saturday. That seemed ok to me but now that it is all over, I am glad that it ended up only two games each day. It really wore me out to work those games and the heat we experienced last week made it even more difficult. But that is not my point today… During a game, there was a situation… bases loaded with one out. Anyone who understands the rules of baseball knows that the infield fly rule is in effect. For those of you who are not fully learned in this all American game, the infield fly rule is: with first and second or first, second and third base occupied with less then two out, if a ball is popped up so as to be deem a routine catch for one of the infielders, the batter is called out and all runners may advance at their own risk to be put out. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Well it is if both umpires have deemed the pop up to be routine. Well that was the situation. My partner called the batter out because of the infield fly rule and I didn’t hear him. I called the runner out at second and the coach of the defensive team told his team to come off the field because there were now three outs… that didn’t sit well with the coaches of the offensive team… The defense ran off the field and some of the offensive players also left the field, but the two coaches came running out to challenge the ruling. Here’s where the “situation” really took off. You see, the problem wasn’t that my partner had called the batter out, the problem was that I didn’t know he had done it. So, when I was challenges as to what had taken place I was answering the challenge with my limited knowledge of the situation. They were asking one thing and I was answering something different. Once I was informed as to what had taken place, (and I calmed down the coaches long enough to play the scenario again in my mind), I was able to make the correct ruling. That’s not to say that the defensive coach was happy about the ruling, but he knew it was the right call, he just wanted it to go the other way. It would take too much room to tell you how we sorted it all out and it wouldn’t help me make my point. My point is that there are often times when we make decisions without all of the facts. When this happens people who have a different perspective typically get upset. They see it one way and you see it your way. Too often when we get to this kind of a situation emotions get involved and typically those involved just get more upset. The moral of the story is, get all of the facts and then make your decision. Sometimes you think you have all the facts when you don’t. When you are challenged, it’s ok to ask someone who has a different perspective and then don’t let you pride getting the way of you making the correction. You may not please everyone but you will at least, get it right. So, how do we apply this to our lives. In relationships there can be many different perspectives and it is easy to make decisions without all of the important information. When we make these uninformed decisions we take action and things go bad. If you fined yourself in a broken relationship because of a differing perspective, my encouragement is to not let your pride get in the way any longer. Get more information concerning the situation and perhaps consider a different perspective and I bet things be worked out. The writer of Hebrews writes: Make every effort to live in peace with all men. Basically what he is saying is, do what every it takes, take as much time as you need, get it right so that you can live in peace with all men. Not everyone will be happy with the call, but you can live in peace with each other. |
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