Benched!

No one wants to be a loser, Father!” exclaimed the boy wearing his spanking-new baseball uniform.

“That is what everyone wants,” I nodded.

“That’s why I have to train to be a real good batter like my brother!” he ambitiously added.

“With that answer, I suppose you’re not a bench player, are you?”

“Nope!”

“But everyone can’t play at the same time, right?”

“Right! But we all train, ‘coz we might be asked to play in the field anytime. So we gotta be ready!”

* * *

Young Babe Ruth is talking out of experience. A competitive athlete’s life allows no other option than winning. Unfortunately, not everyone can play at the same time and not everyone can be a winner.

In the spiritual life, the opposite is true. Every soul has the chance to win! Given the opportunity of an eternity, all that we need to do is train daily, win as many battles as we can (perhaps lose some but, hopefully, not the war), and help others to win it.

In God’s field, everyone can play and shine. This was the example of every saint. Although each one was different from the other in their style, all of them had the same plan: holiness, getting Heaven. The sad thing about this wonderful spiritual game plan is that many Christians prefer to spectate or watch the game from the bench.

How can one avoid sitting and watching from his “spiritual comfort bench?” Or how can we go about living a more sportive spiritual life? Here are some engaging ideas:

a) Plotting a plan. It is not enough to have an abstract end in mind. Say, “I want to be good or holy.” We must have a concrete plan that plots out the goal for us. Concretely, growing in a concrete virtue like patience, constancy in acts of service, keeping someone’s intentions in mind, etc. This plan must be spread out daily, weekly and monthly.

b) Scheming up a schedule. If a plan is the what, then a schedule is the when. A plan is of no use if we do not have a concrete timetable to execute our goals. Thus, a written-down schedule with things-to-do comes handy to win our daily spiritual competitions. A key point to live in this area is punctuality and personal sincerity to fulfill our set appointments. Whether it’s time for praying or working, eating or resting, doing chores or chilling with friends, we must keep to our timetable but always with a supernatural motive behind what we execute according to our plan.

c) Getting guidance. A guide or a director will be a great help, especially to avoid giving in to excuses or rationalizations about our shortcomings or the lack of zest to push through with our plan and schedule. We must be ready to meet the demands from our coaches. Thus, seeing our director or coach must be also diligently set in our schedule.

d) Spiritual Score Sheet. If businessmen keep their accounting in books, health conscious people have food diaries, people in love collect their love letters, then one who is spiritually competitive keeps  tab on how he is achieving his goals. This need not be a strict diary, but like a simple daily checklist. More than checking what we have done or not done, it is meant to “measure the love we put into our goals.”

e) Spiritual teamwork. Let’s not forget, that we can only win if we want to win. But this doesn’t mean that we are all alone in this spiritual game. We can and must count on the others who are praying for and with us, as they, too, count on our prayers and struggles. This is commonly known as the Communion of Saints.
With these tips in mind and heart, it’s time to get out of our benches and start making points and winning!