“Hey batter batter batter batter batter batter batter!

“Hey batter batter batter batter batter batter batter!
 By Southern Plate

When we were little, my brother used to play on baseball teams a lot. So Mama would pack up me and my sister and the whole family would head out to the ball park where my sister and I would try to find someone to play with or risk having to pretend we were actually following the baseball game. There was this thing that the boys on the opposing team did whenever someone went up to bat, they’d chant “Hey batter batter batter batter batter batter batter batter..” No, they weren’t requesting that someone mix up some muffins. Apparently this chant was to throw off the batter’s concentration in order to give them an advantage (If you have to throw off their concentration in order to win though, what is that saying about your playing abilities? Just a random thought from a backseat driver, I’ll shut up now). I woke up this morning and was thinking of how many of us have something on the sidelines, chanting as we take our turn at bat. How many times we get distracted by petty things that nag, nag, nag, so distracted that we lose sight of our original goal. On a grander scale, we may set out to change the world and be fully capable of doing that, but we get so caught up in swatting a honey bee that the sun sets and we missed the chance to give our orders to the assembled army. They’ve all gone home out of boredom, and we’re not a single step closer to our goal. Why? Because we spent our day swatting at a honey bee. Annoying, isn’t it? There are so many batter chants in our life. Things that steal our focus, things that cause us to go tilting windmills instead of accomplishing what we’re meant to accomplish. Those little honeybees could be anything from ugly acting people to congested traffic. I have a hundred petty things that call for my attention each morning. I’m not talking about laundry, dishes, or such. Those aren’t petty. I mean things like getting irritated over something someone else does or says, chasing after offenses or spending my time getting frustrated that I can’t make something work the way I want it to when there is another way that will work staring me right in the face. Crazy, huh? I have to remind myself that my life is too short to dedicate it to trivial things like that. A dear friend (hey Auntie!) pointed out to me recently that the Greek word for “offense” also means “bait” as in, to bait a trap to ensnare. So if you think about it, when we waste our time taking the bait of a honeybee or those folks in the outfield trying to throw us off, we’re allowing ourselves to be caught in it’s trap – and when we’re caught in a trap, we’re not doing what we need/want to do. I know you’re gonna hear some chants today and probably have more than a few honeybees buzzing about your head but I challenge you to ignore them as you go up to bat. This is your time to hit it out of the park and you have limitless home runs within you.