Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - A Star at Any Cost - #8309

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

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There’s a cloud over Major League Baseball again this season; the suspension of the biggest star yet for using banned performance-enhancing drug. It’s costing Manny Ramirez a chunk of the season, millions of dollars, and a lot of credibility. And it’s really hurt his team, the Los Angeles Dodgers. He joins a list that includes baseball’s career home run king and one of the greatest pitchers of our time; stars who are now paying a price for what they did to get there.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft, and when the Manny Ramirez story broke, I thought, “It just isn’t the goal that matters—it matters how you get there.” Of course, this isn’t just about baseball. It’s about any of us who want to win at what we’re doing. For every noble, or not so noble goal, there are temptations to make soul-scarring, reputation-staining compromises to get there. It may be a career goal, a financial goal, even a ministry goal, or something you really want to have or keep.

In football, there are all kinds of things you can do to get to your goal. You could pass, run, hand off, kick…but it only counts if it happens in bounds. Out-of-bounds doesn’t count, no matter how great the catch or the run was.

If you have to go out-of-bounds to get to your goal, it just costs too much. The Bible says, “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. The righteousness of the blameless makes a straight way for them” (Proverbs 11:3 , 5). If getting there means you have to compromise your character, hurt other people, sacrifice the truth, neglect your family, it just isn’t worth it.

This radio program references: Proverbs 11:3 , 5