Disclaimer: I love baseball.  I’m not a hater.  This is just the best way I could illustrate my point.  So don’t hate on me.  Just enjoy my blog =).

I used to be a HUGE baseball fan – and to some extent, I still am.  Though I still look at the world through Dodger Blue-colored glasses, my passion for baseball just isn’t what it used to be.  The reason?  I fell in love with football.

Football, though orderly, is so barbaric! I love the action, I relish the sound of helmets and shoulder pads colliding, and I love how a turnover can in fact turn over the game.  Oooh! Urrgghhh! Mmmm! I just love it! (I’m clenching my fists in passionate excitement as I write this).

Another great thing about football is that it’s even exciting from the sidelines.  Everyone from the fans to the coaches to the benched players is engrossed in the game until the final seconds drop off the clock.  Sure, you gotta take an occasional nacho break but usually the point of interest remains on the field.

It’s different with baseball.  The players are usually messing around in the dugout – talking, spitting, scratching, whatever – and are just kind of doing nothing while waiting to be called to bat.  Baseball fans aren’t much different from the players.  If there’s not much happening on the field, they’re usually more interested in the snack bar and merchandise booths instead of the game. Well, at least that’s what usually preoccupies this fan.

Personally and professionally (though sometimes those lines seem to get blurred), I’ve been on the bench for quite some time.  It hasn’t been easy playing the role of spectator when I know there’s an MVP just waiting to be unleashed.  That might not sound very humble, but what I mean is that I know I could be the best if I were just given a chance to play.

For reasons unknown to me (although I’m confident that I’m MVP material), the Coach is keeping me on the bench.  I don’t understand why others have been called out to play and I’m still waiting for my turn to get in the game.  I’ve had my brief moments of playtime; I’ve just never been a starter or been kept in the game long enough to make my mark.  It’s frustrating and, at times, heart wrenching.

And while I may not have a choice about when I get to play or for how long, I do have a choice about how I wait for my turn to step up.

The choices are these: 1.) I can become lazy like baseball players who don’t seem to care about the game until they’re called to bat, or 2.) I can be like the football players always keeping my focus on the field even if I’m merely watching from the sidelines.

What I’m talking about here is the line between contentment and complacency.

Being complacent is easy; it’s living without trying.  You know your situation could be better, but you simply accept your circumstances without trying to improve matters.  In a way, you have become frozen; you don’t go back and you don’t move forward.  Choosing complacency is simply accepting that you have reached your pique – this or what was is the best it will ever be.  As far as I’m concerned, no one really reaches their pique until they’re dead and even then it’s open for negotiation.

Contentment then is the best option but definitely the hardest to live out.  Like complacency, contentment requires you to accept your circumstances.  However, contentment requires you to push through, to have hope, and to work hard to better your situation.  Contentment requires you to believe that your circumstances are only temporary and that life is filled with seasons of feast and famine.

It’s not easy to live contently when it seems like nothing is ever going to change despite your best efforts.  It’s truly difficult to believe that you’ll get that job, relationship, house, child, or whatever your dream may be, especially when it seems as though you haven’t made it past square one.

But the good news is that you have made it past square one.  In fact, you’ve made it past more squares than you think.  The problem is, is that we just can’t see how many squares we’ve passed until we have a few behind us.  It’s then that we understand (sometimes) why we were kept on the bench during those times we felt we should’ve been on the field.

What it boils down to is that we have to trust that the Coach knows what he’s doing.  He has a strategy, but sometimes that strategy includes keeping his MVPs on the bench until the appointed time in the playbook.  In other words, he’s just saving the best for his best.

In the meantime, we have to cheer on the other players, stay focused, and remain hopeful.  The bench is only temporary; however, the rewards for our faith and our endurance are eternal.