Keep Your Eye On The Ball!

I grew up in Boston, MA, and every March during that glorious decade known as the '80s I would go down to Winter Haven, FL, to watch my beloved Boston Red Sox in spring training.

It's easy to be a Red Sox fan these days, with 2 World Series championships in 4 seasons, but back in the day we were traumatized by the foul memories of Bucky Dent, Mookie Wilson, and other post-season Red Sox debacles, and being a Red Sox fan had a certain stigma attached to it.

One March in the '80s when I was watching the Red Sox in Winter Haven, I ventured down to one of the minor league fields to try to hustle an autograph or two. When I arrived there, I saw a large man with a loud voice, clad in his white, double-knit Red Sox uniform, shouting instructions to a bunch of nervous-looking minor leaguers trying to make the Show.

"Keep your eye on the ball!" the Red Sox coach boomed at the minor league hitters. "You've got to focus! Watch the bat meet the ball!"

Watch the bat meet the ball? Was this guy crazy? Did he have any idea how impossible that was to do? I played baseball in my younger days, and I knew that this guy was asking the minor leaguers to do something absolutely impossible.

Then I got a glimpse at the number on the back of this crazy coach's uniform.

It was #9.

It was Ted Williams.

The greatest hitter in baseball history.

The Red Sox minor leaguers were learning from the master. It'd be like taking painting lessons from Picasso, or guitar lessons from Eric Clapton.

"Keep your eye on the ball! Focus!" Ted Williams kept barking at the minor leaguers.

As I reflect on Teddy Ballgame's words today, I realize that it's much the same in international ministry.

The enemy is going to do everything that he can to make you lose your focus and to take your eye off the ball. He'll throw curveballs, knuckleballs, and right-under-the-chin fastballs to knock you on your seat. The enemy will try to cause you to focus on absolutely anything but your ministry. He'll try to cause you to focus on language problems, cultural problems, visa problems, customs problems, tax problems, medical problems, denominational problems, technology problems, weather problems, team problems, governmental problems, financial problems, Wall Street problems, family problems, parent problems, children problems, or whatever it takes to cause you to lose your focus.

Stay focused on the ministry at hand. Keep your eye on the ball! Excel and focus on your ministry the same way that Ted Williams excelled and focused on his hitting, and watch your ministry become Hall of Fame-worthy in no time.