All I want for my birthday (51 today, thank you very much) is a trip to Grand Junction, Colorado.
After winning yesterday, 7-6, we play today for the championship in Waco. The winner will advance to the Southwest Regional tournament in Grand Junction — playing for a chance to go to the World Series.
It was great coming here last year, but we lost two straight games and had to go home. This year we’ve won a couple games. It won’t be easy. We have one loss and Laredo Del Mar has none, so we have to beat them twice.
Someday maybe this blog will return to more substantive material. Like guacamole recipes. But for now, it’s junior league baseball.
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Someone mentioned in the comments from the last post that their favorite part of Leaving Church was the “baptism” scene. It’s also my favorite part. After she resigns from ministry, she’s invited to a pool party when people begin throwing one another in.
“I stood back and watched the mayhem that ensued. All around me, people were grabbing people and wrestling them toward the water. The dark night air was full of pool spray and laughter.”
Some looked at her but decided, in light of her past “position,” to leave her alone. “I still looked waterproof to them,” she remembers.
But then . . .
“Two strong hands grabbed my upper arms from behind, and before I knew it I was in the water, fully immersed and swimming in light. I never found out who my savior was, but when I broke the surface, I looked around at all of those shining people with makeup running down their cheeks, with hair plastered to their heads, and I was so happy to be one of them. If being ordained meant being set apart from them, then I did not want to be ordained anymore. I wanted to be human: I wanted to spit food and let snot run down my chin. I wanted to confess being as lost and found as anyone else without caring that my underwear showed through my wet clothes. Bobbing in that healing pool with all those other flawed beings of light, I looked around and saw them as I had never seen them before, while some of them looked at me the same way. The long wait had come to an end. I was in the water at last.”
Happy Birthday, Mike. I hope your birthday wish becomes a reality!
Happy Birthday and I sure hope that you’ll be in Grand Junction soon!
Good morning, Mike! 51?? That makes me. . . well, not as old as you. Hope it’s a great day!
Happy Birthday! Hope it’s a good one! Thanks for posting the “baptism” scene. From it and your previous posts, it sounds like an excellent book.
Happy Birthday, Mike!
Happy Birthday and good luck!!! Keep us posted. Also YES that is my favorite quote so far!
Happy #51, Mike. Baseball in the lovely climate of Grand Junction sounds great to me!
And, thanks for the excerpts from the BTB book—-sounds interesting, for sure.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
[why DO you get up so early? I’d planned to be here early, trying to beat you to the reminder. That’s what I get for following a West Coast baseball team. Their games are over so late, not being conducive to before 6:00AM arising. ;)]
May your birthday wish come true!
Mike, some true confession and an apology. Sorry for my sarcasm yesterday. I think that you know that I am not usually like that but there are moments that I type what comes first and that is not always wise.
True confession: Diane and I have talked about this. You have been my friend for a long time and you have talked and prayed me through some difficult situation and I can have deep conversation with you online…blog or email…but when we talk face to face I get tongue-tied and unsure of myself. I hold you up too high and that gets in the way of conversation. Diane and I talked about it and she was surprised. Diane and I can talk about anything and I love it. Maybe I just need to throw you in someone’s pool and talk afterwards… I don’t want you to feel set up on a pedastal and not be able to experience being a part of things.
Happy, happy birthday!!! And tell Chris that we are hoping for more wins.
Have a very happy birthday.
I appreciate what you do and who you are, but I hope there are times when you get wet just like everyone else.
Q.
Happy birthday Mike. Thanks for telling us about the book. I’ll get a copy soon. And here’s my hope that the next stop is Grand Junction!
51 huh? Aren’t you pretty close to getting food cheaper at restaurants?
Try to have a happy birthday anyway.
Happy Birthday Mike! I was in Abilene last night and this morning. I drove right by Highland and almost stopped to see you. I wanted to say hi. I didn’t even think about it being your birthday. Celebrate big time, have some guacamole or something!
Happy Birthday Gramps. Coaching Little League has an exciting mystique about it that keeps us young. Best of luck in the tournament. Colorado or bust. Please be careful if you’re coaching in the first baseman’s box; or anywhere really…
happy birthday, mike! hope all your wishes are granted.
We lost 4-3. What a game. Chris pitched through the 5th inning, allowing 2 runs. Then he got close to his pitch limit. We were so close at the end — but it stopped suddenly with a close (I’m being generous here) call at first. Our catcher was out with an injury and everyone got moved around, but did great. What a wonderful bunch of kids. Good luck to Laredo Del Mar at the SW regionals in CO!
Mike-
I have forgotten - is the last time that you will coach a team of Chris’s?
If so, I am assuming that you are getting fit for sackclothes to wear for a few days - what a tough way to go out, but how great that it lasted this long. I am father of two young boys and your stories of coaching your son’s team have me pretty exicted and hoping that things fall in place where I get to experience the same.
Sounds like it was a great game.
What a bummer. The only consolation I can come up with - and it’s lame-O - is this: of all of the people and teams that played sports today, roughly half of them were on the losing end.
Still, it was fun living vicariously through Abilene South for a week or two. If this was indeed your last chance to coach Chris in baseball, the bittersweet of it all is palpable to this daddy-coach, too. I hate milestones like that, but they come more and more frequently with every passing season.
qb
Thanks from me, too, for the excerpt from the “baptism” scene. Happy 51!
(Though of course you know it means you have just COMPLETED your 51st year ….)
Happy, Happy Birthday!
That is a wonderful scene that is depicted in that story. Maybe people will start believing in the priesthood of all believers when those they see as priests start looking more normal, when congregants see the ministers with their own foibles and problems, etc. How do children learn healthy conflict resolution? By seeing their parents model conflict in a healthy way in front of them. How are members to see that being part of ministry is not a strange thing to do if the ministers seem so distant?
By the way, Happy birthday!
Sorry this is a day late, but happy birthday! Hope you had a good one, despite the disappointing loss. Give my love to the rest of your family. I can’t wait to see them again in a few weeks! Love you!
Happy belated birthday! I hope you got your wish.