TEAM

The grass was very green and the sky a bright blue and the sun was hot on the team of cricketers as the team  gathered to start the game.  It would now be thirty-one years ago that our granddaughter Leah blessed our lives with her arrival.  She was the happiest of the three babies born that year, Stephen and Oliver and herself.

Leah now has a team of professionals that are helping her overcome the damage to her body from the trama of car accidents.  Her recovery has been slow and pain is always a reality.  She is recovering and we are so pleased to see more life in her eyes and face.

All weekend I have been wishing Leah happy birthday but wouldn't you know on her real day I forget.  I had remembered when I first got up and put it on face book but when I came face to face I forgot.  I remembered when I got home and I felt really bad.

The team played very well and had improved since the first time we had seen them.  Throwing the ball with a straight arm is very hard to do but Theresa is making great progress in her throwing.  It was good that Kim was able to play because they were short of players and were even shorter when one new girl got what seemed to be heat stroke.  Luckily I had a bag of ice in my stuff I had thrown together for us to eat, and they put it on her neck.

Tyler who has played a lot as the catcher really knows the game and helped explain it.  We left as the teams stopped to have a lunch and cool down a bit.  We were disappointed our team had not been up to bat yet.  This game takes a long time to be played but they a happy group and had fun just being apart of a team.

One of the important teachings of Jesus was to encourage believers to join together as a team.  I can be a "very good" person when I am not relating to others.   I am reminded that Jesus calls us into a loving relationship with God, that grows within a heart that is open; and also a loving relationship with our neighbors.

Faith without a struggle is meaningless and being part of a community that cares and loves one another has strengthened my life.

Christianity is a history of accumulated human experiences and even in the Old Testament there were times when the love of God is expressed, instead of an angry and vengeful God of the sky.  The truth was distorted in favor of the pursuit of power and pleasure and perfection.

We learn from the past, our past and the of history, that human nature has the potential for good and for evil.  I believe that we all need to have tacks or work to do, meaningful relationships that grow out of being on a team, and hope for the future.

Hope is the catalyst of change and the energy of transformation when we team up with love and faith.