Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Clouds Over Baseball - #8253

Monday, April 20, 2009

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I heard it first from my baseball card collecting grandson: “Hear about A-Rod? He admitted using steroids.” He’s not the only 10-year-old boy to lock in on that news. And that’s not who you want to hear it from. Alex Rodriguez–three-time American League MVP, baseball’s highest paid player–admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. And clouds again rolled in over Major League Baseball. He’s not the first, and probably not the last to have a giant question mark over a great career. How much was his ability, and how much was what he injected into his system?

I’m Ron Hutchcraft, and it’s not just baseball players whose success is diminished or discredited by what they did to get there. Jesus put it in stark, bottom line terms. He said, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul?” (Mark 9:36 – KJV).

All of us hard-driving, goal-oriented folks need to stop every once in a while and ask, “What price am I paying to succeed?” In your work, in your social standing, in your ministry, what’s it costing your husband or wife? What toll is it taking on your children? You’re the only mommy or daddy they have. What about your reputation? The people you’ve hurt by running past them or over them on the way to your dream? What have the compromises you’ve made done to your reputation, or what will they do to it someday?

What’s it costing you–or what’s it going to cost you–in people’s trust, your conscience, your integrity, your personal peace, your relationship with God? Is winning really worth the price you’re paying? You could gain the whole world and lose your soul.

Bible References: Mark 9:36