“C’mon Kelsey, You’ Got This!”
I have spent more time than I can count sitting by softball fields this Fall. We have loved getting involved with PYAA “Ponytails” and seeing Laura practice and play. This is the final week of the Fall Season, and this past Saturday we spent all day at the field as Laura’s team played in the “Halloween Tournament.” Our first game on Saturday morning was against Amelia, but it wasn’t our first time playing them this season. Beverley and I looked forward to the Saturday morning game against Amelia, but not for any reasons you may suspect.
Amelia’s second baseman (basewoman?) is a girl who is much smaller than many of the other players. She has a long ponytail, and her glove is nearly as large as she is. We don’t know this girl, but when her team plays, she is a non-stop encouragement machine. During our last game against Amelia their pitcher really struggled with accuracy (this is not uncommon in Ponytails fast-pitch softball). She simply couldn’t throw a strike. But this little second baseman, her confidence in the pitcher never seemed to be diminished. “C’mon Kelsey, You’ Got This!” she would shout, over and over again. Kelsey had walked the last four batters, pitching balls above the batter’s head and behind the batter’s back, but the second baseman kept at it. “C’mon Kelsey, You’ Got This! STRIKE HER OUT!” I don’t know if Kelsey struck anyone out that entire game, but that second baseman was going to encourage her regardless of the circumstances.
Encouragement is important.
Yesterday I spent the afternoon reading the many cards and notes I was given during worship yesterday morning. And as I read all of those expressions of love, support, and kindness, I felt many things. I felt deep joy, joy to be your pastor and to share life together. I felt gratitude, because I am blessed to be the pastor of the May Memorial family. I felt nostalgia, as many of you wrote about encounters or visits or memories that we have shared. I felt love, because the love that I have for you is great. I felt many emotions yesterday afternoon, but most of all I felt encouraged. I felt like, once again, that “I can do this,” and yes, with God’s help, “we’ve got this.” And we do.
So I say thank you for encouraging me. I was blessed by your notes, and honestly, I needed it. Thank you.
This coming Sunday is All Saints Day, the day we remember the saints of our church family (and all saints) who have gone before us. On All Saints Day we frequently read from the book of Hebrews in which the preacher tells us that “we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, so run the race that is set before us, laying aside all of the things that so easily beset us.” The writer is saying, be encouraged, all of heaven is rooting for you. Our ancestors, our saints, they’re cheering for us, encouraging us, even in this difficult time, to keep on keeping on. Don’t give up, whatever your facing. No matter how tough the race, you have a cheering section that is reminding you that “c’mon, you’ got this.”