Photo credit: TexasMonthly.com
For the millions of Astros fans, like me, at the end of Friday night’s Game Six, it felt like the parting of the Red Sea. After soundly losing games two and three to the Red Sox, Houston won games four, five, and six in the ALCS to advance to the World Series. Pandemonium broke out on and off the field. The celebration of victory encompassed more than joy, the love of the game, or the sheer relief in overcoming all the obstacles the Team faced to get there.
That moment made me feel that I was part of something bigger than me. In witnessing the love between the players amidst the hugs, smiles, laughter, and clubhouse waves of champagne, I felt there was more of that love in me and those around me .
To underscore what had just happened there was the post-game interview of the “Big OG”, Dusty Baker, the 72-year old Astros’ Manager. Last year he said he felt like a substitute teacher but this year something had happened.
Dusty proclaimed that there was an indescribable feeling in that moment of victory. “It’s a special feeling you have for each other…….It’s a special feeling you only get in church or on the field.”
That comment really touched my heart. I remembered how, after polio as a seven-year-old boy, I did not feel a part of something bigger than me. I did not belong. Love was not as near, not as present as before. That changed with the special indescribable feeling I experienced in church. Without even asking me, Mom put me in the Cherub Choir at St. Francis Episcopal Church. I sang all the hymns the other kids were singing. In singing those hymns and in wearing my red robe I knew Jesus loved me. I was not only a member of the Choir. I was part of a family of God’s love. What made our Astros their best in Game 6 was the love created under the watch of Dusty Baker’s faith. He spoke of kindred spirits watching and guiding him from above like his dad, Hank Aaron, and Joe Morgan.
After all the mess of Covid, the disharmony in America, and the inability to attend church services, how much do we need to find, share and experience that special, indescribable feeling Dusty Baker spoke about? For me, plenty. I have not attended in-person worship services since March of 2020. As good as Zoom, Facebook Live or YouTube are, it is more difficult to have that experience in an electronic world.
God has spoken to us in Scripture about that indescribable feeling as being part of His love.
Philippians 2:3-4
Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem another better than himself.
Let us pray together.
God, every day please help me find and experience that indescribable feeling of love when I am with You in prayer or in Church.
God, in the joy of knowing that I am a special part of Your Kingdom, may I share the Good News that I, like all Your faithful people, have the greatest victory of all. Eternal life after the game of life on Earth has ended.
God, please open my heart to others so that they can also be invited to be and become a member of Your Kingdom.
Thanks to You, my God, I have a place at Your Table. I truly belong. I am Yours. You are mine forever and ever. Amen
If you like this prayer, please share.
If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon.
Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur, and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to the Bending Angel website.
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