I rolled out of bed at 5:40 a.m., rubbing my blurry eyes, and thinking about…well, honestly, the first thought is always the snooze button.  But once that internal battle was over, I pondered the idea of sacred softball.

But more on that later.

It was the perfect day for a softball tournament.  A Sheaves for Christ softball tournament. 

Yes, indeed, this past Saturday, 12 teams and a host of umpires, concession stand workers, score keepers, and loyal fans swarmed the Harker Heights Baseball Complex for the 2nd Annual Harker Heights Sheaves For Christ Softball Tournament.  Registration started at 7 am, and by 8 am, 3 games were in progress. 

Do you know that of those 12 teams, only 3 were UPCI church teams? The other 9 were primarily composed of guys that played on the city leagues in the surrounding areas.  Guys who brought their families and who saw the name of our church displayed, who ordered concessions from our sweet ladies…and some of who are now wearing 1st and 2nd place t-shirts bearing our church’s name.

I can get excited about that.

And when they asked where our church is, we just pointed out past field 4, where you could see the steeple in the distance. 

The idea of a SFC softball tournament is not original to us, but bringing it to Harker Heights was the dreamchild of Cade Hendrick.  Cade, along with his parents, Bro. and Sis. Robert Hendrick, organized the first tournament last year.  Cade went on to win the Real McCoy Award (see him talk about his experience here!) last year.

Don’t you think his shirt is rather appropriate?

The scoreboard was my forte (to use the word loosely) and the Starbucks was a necessity to make it through that last Championship game. 

It was a long, fun day.  I have the sunburn to prove it. 

But back to the word sacred…

My Chemistry prof in college started every class with a devotion.  When he was especially inspired, he would pump his arm at the conclusion, and exclaim “See, see! Chemistry is worship!” It took me a while to get his point, but after two General Chemistry classes, and one long, loong semester of Organic Chemistry, I think I got it.  Chemistry was God’s purpose for him, and it was God’s purpose for the students in that class.  For him, it was a God-given, lifelong passion to study and teach Chemistry is a Christian institution. For us students, it was a necessary step along our journey toward fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives.  And that is worship. 

So maybe softball can, indeed, be sacred.

I think there might be some missionaries who would agree.