Sincere -- Sincerely Wrong

I have become a huge baseball fan over the past few years. I won't go into why or how I became a baseball fan so late in life. But, trust me. It's a good story.

I saw this quote tonight while skimming the sports news. Apparently, Yadier Molina, the catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals was thrown out for arguing balls and strikes with the home plate umpire Paul Schreiber last night. You can maybe mutter something under your breath to the umpire. But everyone knows you are going to get tossed out of the game if you argue balls and strikes. And both Molina and his manager Tony La Russa got tossed out of the game for doing just that.

But that is not the point of this post. What really struck me was the comments by his manager, Tony La Russa. La Russa knows Yadier Molina well and Molina has a reputation for being competitive, but good to work with from the home plate umpire's perspective. Here is what La Russa said to the media following the game.

“You try to coach emotion in players, and that’s what competition is about,” La Russa said. “That’s not his style, so evidently he was sincere. And if he’s sincere, what can you say about it?”

So what does all of this have to do with a blog like this?

Sincerity is not enough. Our own human efforts are not enough. Believing with all our might is not enough. Popular culture tells us if we just believe we can achieve whatever we want.

We must be right. We must be righteous.

And there is only one way to attain righteousness. And that is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Play ball!