EncourageYou!

As a baseball fan, I'm enjoying another year managing my fantasy baseball team. I took some time off when my children were babies, but I started as a teenager in the 1980s. I'm also blessed to be in the same league with guys I've known for 10-20 years or more. Here are some examples of what I've learned. Some observations are funny, some serious. Feel free to post your own observations if you like.

• You are young when you look up to athletes who are grown up.
• You are old when you root for athletes who are younger than you.
• You are really old when athletes are younger than your high school diploma.
• One superstar is more valuable than a group of average performers. This is true in sports, business, friendships, and romance. Don't trade your superstar for a group of so-sos. If you have a superstar, don't let go.
• Drafting is more valuable than trading. Players taken in the draft are free, players traded for cost something.
• You can't win them all, but you can lose them all. At least I can.
• No matter how good you are, there's someone smarter, faster, or more shrewd than you. If not, somebody is working on it.
• Nothing in life is certain. That's why you play the games.
• When negotiating a trade or making a business deal, know the facts. It's not the other person's job to look out for your best interests, it's your job.
• Speaking of negotiating a trade, if someone you've known for a decade or two tries to get the better of you, it's nothing personal.
• Players come and go, but friends stay forever.
• Friends stay forever only if you're committed to the time and effort.
• On any given day, you can win, or you can lose. How well you're doing depends on the long haul.
• The dice are thrown, but God influences the outcome (see Proverbs 16:33)
• It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.

My fantasy baseball league plays simulated games based on players actual performances. For more information, link to www.apbagames.com

This morning I heard about one of my friends who's working in a high burnout position for a huge US corporation: Long days, new bosses, a promise to move to a better position that hasn't yet been kept.

It is easy to think that the grass is always greener on the other side. Some days I wish I could work for a bigger company so that I could have better benefits, a better defined job description, paid holidays, and so on. Then again, I do have some advantages that mega-corporations do not have: I won't be relocated, I know my contributions count, I have intimate access to top management (someday I'll post about how to thrive while sharing office space with in-laws), I don't have boring routine (where else can one file a payroll tax return and lift 50 pound bags of sugar in the same day?), and so on.

After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God cursed the human race by making us work by the sweat of our brow, and the land would produce thistles. Work will not be easily joyful until those of us who trust Jesus as our Lord and Savior make it to the New Heaven and New Earth. Until then, we must persevere.

This morning in my office, I heard that horrid metal on metal crunch. My office overlooks an interstate off ramp, and there was a nasty 3 car and 1 truck pileup on the ramp. So I heard 3 crashes. It didn't seem as if anybody was injured too seriously, but the cars and vans were. One minivan looked like an accordion, crunched both in front and back.

Nobody plans on having their day ruined by a disaster, and each day I make it to/from work or anywhere else safely, I am thankful. Be thankful also, if you've made it to or from where you're going. We never know if (or when) we're going to be tested by a surprise disaster.

So, assuming I make it home OK today, I'm going to give my wife and kids big hugs and kisses, and rejoice in another safe trip. You do the same.