Baseballs, A Gun and A Sniper

Growing up I had a gun for an arm.

Baseball has an expression for a player with a strong arm. It’s colorful vocabulary says the player has a gun for an arm. I found it out early. It started the summer after my second-grade year. Avon Little League. I was most often placed in centerfield because I was the only one that could throw the ball all the way in from the outfield. It wasn’t long before I fell in love with the game.

I wish I had a ten-dollar bill for every time I practiced on a ball diamond – shagging flies, taking batting practice, loosening up the arm.

Little League. Babe Ruth. High School Ball. Pickup softball games in college. Church Leagues. Industrial Leagues. Played every position. Batted in every spot in the order. Hours upon hours of time spent on America’s Pastime. My dad even cleared out a vacant field behind our house and built a ball diamond on it.

Not once was I concerned about being hit by a sniper’s bullet.

The CNN news anchor yesterday said, “Even if this was a politically motivated shooting, what we really need to be talking about is gun control.” Even if?

A world without rules is like baseball without foul lines.

This is not about gun control, although I see no earthly reason for a man to be able to legally possess a M4 carbine semi-automatic rifle capable of blistering the country-side with rounds and rounds of ammunition.

It isn’t about political unrest. This isn’t about religious jihadists who see violence as a necessary means to eradicate those opposed to their god ruling the earth. The answer isn’t about educators stirring protest marches. Our issue isn’t about being fed up with a president who can’t keep his Tweets to himself.

This is about an angry world. Today’s problem is about sports anchors yelling because they disagree about which team will win. The news reporters will push each other because their opinions on Russian influence in American politics differ. Network news shows people celebrating a sports victory by overturning cars and setting fires in trashcans and knocking out store windows.

It’s about no standards for behavior. Everyone appears to be doing what seems right in his own eyes. It’s about seeing the only way to stop those with whom I disagree is through violence.

The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, slavery and Nazi Germany. It’s about another record murder rate in Louisville, the Pulse massacre in Orlando, the Sandy Hook school shootings, and an over-sixty-year-old gunman who opens fire on politicians practicing baseball.

The grim truth is that man isn’t getting better, becoming more civilized, striving to be more humane. The truth about man is that man is sinful – that he doesn’t make good choices. Not because he is insane, but because he is a selfish sinner.

Take away the word “sin,” eliminate the Bible from reading lists, take down the Ten Commandments, stop public prayers. It doesn’t matter what you do – the result is still the same. Our human race is flawed. Selfish. Egotistical. Greedy. Immoral. Sinful.

Solomon was right. There is nothing new under the sun.

That is why the world needs a Savior. Maybe it’s time we Christians start talking about Him more.