What We Talk About

"No matter what I talk about, I always get back to baseball." --Connie Mack

Though there's officially a week or two left in winter, signs of spring are all around. The weeds are sprouting, the storms already blowing, and the flowers are starting to bloom. Spring is in the air. Or, is that pollen?

Of course, it's also time for baseball. For some of us, perpetual little boys that we are, hope springs eternal when baseball season arrives. And for our family, it has arrived at full speed this week.

Which reminds me of a quote from the aforementioned Connie Mack, whose given name was Cornelius McGillicuddy. Born during the Civil War, the Hall of Fame legend managed major league baseball teams for an astounding 56 years, from 1894 to 1950. (You may have also heard of his great grandson, Connie Mack IV, who is a Congressmen from Florida.)

Anyway, the elder Mack's life was obviously consumed by the game he loved. Hence, the quote above, given in an interview with Sporting News magazine in 1951, when he was 88 years old and retired from the game. He still couldn't stop talking about baseball.

We've all known people like that, whose lives have a singular focus, whose conversations always seem to end up in the same place. It may be their work, their family, their frustrations with the president, or Alabama football, but you come to expect that somehow, some time, the conversation will turn to what is most important to them.

It's really quite simple. It has everything to do with what's on our mind and what's in our heart, all the time. Jesus said it this way: "For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." (Luke 6:45) In other words, what you say flows from what is in your heart.

What does yourconversation always get back to? Where does your mind naturally "settle" when the dust of life clears? Where is the "due north" your compass needle points to after you shake it up a bit? What is the central focus of your heart and mind?

My prayer is that no matter what you talk about, you'll always get back to Jesus, and the difference He makes in your life. Not a pious and phony religiosity--no one wants to hear that--but a genuine heart for Christ that oozes out of everything you do and say.

May He be honored in your conversation today. I'm praying for you, as I hope you are for me, and I look forward to seeing you again this Sunday.

--Pastor Ken

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