Compelled by Love
In 2008 there was a softball game between the Western Oregon Wolves and Central Washington University. Whoever wins this game gets to advance to the division playoffs. Sara was up to bat for Western Oregon. She was only hitting .153 for the season.
Her coach put her in the game because the right fielder had missed a play earlier in the game. There were 2 runners on base and Sara needed to have a good at bat. She needed to at least move the runners. Scoring a run here would be huge.
The pitcher winds up and sends a curve ball across the plate. Sara sees it out her hand. She stays back and then, at just the right time, she swings.
On that day, something special happened for Sara and her team. She connected on that pitch in front of about 100 fans in the Cascade Mountains and sent the ball over the fence for a 3 run home run!
[This story is found in Unshakable Hope by Max Lucado and reported by Tom Rinaldi]You can just imagine how excited she was! Sara took off around the bases but she was so excited, she forgot to touch first base! Her coach started yelling at her to go back and touch first, and when she did, when Sara changed direction to head back to first base, she felt something pop in her knee.
She fell to the ground in pain, crawled back to first base, and just sat there, tears falling down her face. She didn’t know what to do.
If she tried to stand up she would collapse. But she had to make her way around the bases for the home run to count. If her coaches helped her, it wouldn’t count. Her teammates weren’t allowed to help her either.
She sat there in pain looking to the umpires for help. They huddled up to try to decide what to do. This was an important game. How was Sara going to be able to make her way around the bases to home plate?
Hurting People
We live in a world full of people like Sara. People who are hurting and wondering who to turn to for help. Wondering how to get from where there are to where they need to be.
Like Sara, they, too, have fallen. Not in a softball game, but in life. They’s stumbled. Struggled. They’ve done things they’re not proud of and done some things that they’re absolutely ashamed of. The distance between where they are and where they want to be seems impossible.
For many of people, it’s in these moments where we feel distant from God. Like the prodigal son we don’t know if we can go home and if we tried to go home if we would be welcomed.
So what does it look like for us to be people compelled by love?
Tom Rinaldi is a reporter who is famous for telling these heart warming stories that happen from time to time in the sports world.
According to Tom, that day on the softball field Sara was looking for help when her knee popped and she fell to the ground. The fans were yelling for someone to help Sara. This was an important game. The winner would advance to the playoffs and the losers would go home.
Mallory Holtman saw Sara sitting on first base, saw that she was hurting, and decided to do something in that moment that changed everything. Mallory was a Senior and she was the First Baseman for the other team. If her team lost, her softball career would be finished. But Mallory wasn’t thinking about herself, she was thinking about Sara.
Mallory was compelled by love.
There was no rule about an opposing player helping Sara around the bases. So Mallory got her friend who was playing shortstop to come help her and together they carried Sara around the bases, pausing at each one to lower Sara so she could touch the bag.
The crowd was stunned. The umpires couldn’t believe it. But they carried Sara all the way home. Tears were streaming down Sara’s face. Fans for both teams were cheering. Even though she was in incredible pain, Sara couldn’t stop smiling as her team welcomed her at home plate.
Love Changed the Game
Everything changed for Sara because Mallory was compelled to action, to do something, for someone who was hurting.
The good news is that this is what God has done for you in Jesus. The only one who could help has come to help you. His offer to you is the same offer Mallory made to Sara that day. “Let me carry you home.”
[Read more about the promises of God here.]And for those who have been carried home, for those of us who have experienced the great love of God, we get to help carry others home.
The Apostle Paul says it this way, “For Christ’s love compels us…” Compelled by love to do what?
He goes on to say, we are ambassadors for Jesus, urging, pleading, imploring people, people who are hurting, people who are far from God, to be reconciled to God. To be made right with God. To come home to God.
If that’s you, if you’re hurting, if you feel like you’re far from God let me just say, God would love nothing more than to welcome you home. There’s nothing you could ever do that would make God love you less.
If you’ve experienced that love, the love of God, can I encourage you to look around, like Mallory did that day, and help someone who is hurting. Carry them home, home to God.
May we be people who are compelled by love.
