NYCBL All Star Break Weekend

This brief All-Star break has been sort of misleading. It is definitely not a break from any sort of busy schedule. Rather, it is a break from playing baseball games. Even so, I had to endure sitting through a foreverlong All-Star game (almost 4 hours) after having sat through a 13-contestant home run derby. That’s a lot of baseball in one day. The next day, today, we went to Cooperstown to fulfill one of my childhood dreams—visiting the baseball hall of fame. This was an overwhelming experience. On the precipice of exhaustion, I attempted to soak in all the history that the museum had to offer. I’m convinced that this cannot be accomplished within the span of one afternoon. I was able to enjoy the museum to the best of my ability however, as well as the surrounding shops around the town. It felt like Whoville during Christmas, except that instead of creepy little people it was filled with normal humans, and instead of an explosion of Christmas decorations there were baseball gloves, bats, memorabilia, photographs, décor, books, and any other imaginable baseball related item everywhere you looked (to continue with this analogy, the Grinch would probably have to be some figure that represented the season of Winter, or just anybody that hates baseball such as communists or child murderers). It was as if the town was founded as a celebration of the game. In a word, beautiful.

On the way to the All-Star game I listened to a Piper sermon entitled How to Fight for Joy. This is within a series of sermons based on his book When I Don’t Desire God. I also listened to an interview with him on the topic of suffering and the sovereignty of God (very light, fluffy material, right down my alley). There were a few aspects of the sermon and interview that really stuck out to me and I appreciated a lot. Many of them I have heard before, as he restated some of the foundational aspects of his book Desiring God so as to demonstrate a starting point for when people do not desire God (it makes sense). One of which was the idea of Christianity being about affections instead of decisions. I have already written about this, but something he mentioned while expounding on this point was that Satan has more accurate theology, and a better hold on sound doctrine than I ever will. However, he hates this knowledge and operates as such. This is where the difference comes in with the believer and the non believer. It is not about head knowledge and gathered information. Nor is it about stating willful decisions based on that knowledge. Christianity is about the affections of the heart and the transformation that occurs that is so radical, it is referred to as a “new creature”. This is also why Paul, in 1 Cor. 1:24 states that he works with the Corinthian church for their faith and joy. He stresses the word joy in between mentioning their faith because one cannot be without the other. Decisions and information can be turned on and off like a light switch, but affections such as happiness and joy cannot. They are spontaneous and a gift from God, and these are the evidences of a Christian. This is also why the pursuit for joy is not optional, because the pursuit for God’s glory is not optional. God gets the glory by being the source of our enthrallment.

Another aspect that Piper mentioned was one that blew my mind. I love those moments where basic gospel truths leave me breathless and my head spinning. For too long I overlooked them and my heart was far from them. The aspect was the fact that sin is absolutely outrageous. This can be seen in light of the fact that God is the supreme ruler of the universe, the source of all that is beautiful and good, and yet a piece of fruit was chosen over Him by His very own creation. Now, sins like this, in many different forms, have taken place countless times in the lives of every human being that has ever lived and ever will live. This is an enormous amount of outrageous and repugnant sin. However, and this is the part that left my head spinning, the value of the Son of God was so great that His death covered the enormity of that sin. The value and worth of Jesus Christ was so infinite that it satisfied the wrath of almighty God against the countless of outrageous acts performed against Him. This revelation of the supreme value of Jesus Christ is the kind of thing that I want to tell the world about.

One last aspect that really stuck out to me was when Piper mentioned what he has found to be a huge stumbling block to Christians on their spiritual walk. The fact that we, as fallen humans, keep on sinning despite our desire not to after we are saved brings a lot of despair, and has caused many Christians to fall away. God’s purpose behind the slowness of the sanctification process is very hard to understand. At the last trumpet, when Christ makes his triumphant return and the saints are gathered, there will be no more sins committed by the elect. This means that God has the ability to perfect us in a moment’s time. Why doesn’t He? The answer Piper gave does not completely answer the question, but does give a better perspective on how to approach the question. That is, that the slowness of our sanctification can be reflected upon and seen for how much is required to rid ourselves of all our sin. We are royally messed up. However, this shows the magnificence of the superabounding grace of God. We should look back on our journey, seeing all the sins we have committed for what they really are, and revel in the fact that God’s grace has stayed with us all this time. Every day we wake and His grace is there. This grace is—and has been appropriately described as—amazing.