How They’re REALLY Learning

I love the game of baseball. In my opinion, it’s the game that most resembles real life. There are some really low points. Failure and setbacks are a given, and perfection is unattainable. On the other hand, there are some really high points, many that come after the lowest points imaginable, and, unlike all other sports where a team can run out the clock, in baseball, “it’s never over ’til it’s over.” Until the last out has been made, you’ve still got a chance.

Oh, and in between that? There’s a LOT of routine!

I also love the most basic element of baseball: playing catch. At its most fundamental level, baseball is a game where one person throws the ball to another person. In fact, you could say that the basic goal of the defense in baseball is to catch the ball, and the goal of the offense is to prevent the ball from being caught.

As it turns out, playing catch isn’t just the most basic element of baseball; it’s just about a perfect illustration of how learning in real life works. Especially when it comes to us following Jesus.

We often tend to think of learning (or teaching) what to do as a more academic exercise. We explain (or someone explains to us) a concept, and then the person doing the listening goes and applies the concept.

That can and does happen. Certainly it’s typically the case in a school setting. However, what I am learning is that there is tremendous truth to a phrase I heard years ago when it comes to how we actually learn things, and it’s this:

What that simply means is this: we are far more likely to pick up on and learn things by “catching” what is “thrown” in our direction as opposed to sitting and listening in a formal way. Put another way, we learn more by copying what is modeled for us than doing what we are told to do. And make no mistake, there is so much that gets thrown at us every day.

And we ourselves do a ton of throwing as well.

Want to know the really scary interesting thing about this?

That’s why, as I get older, I find myself doing things and saying things that look and sound just like my Dad. I was never told to do that. I just heard him say things and say him do things…and they eventually popped up in my life. In a different arena, I’ve found that I do a lot of things much like the first pastor I got to serve under for 5 years- and they didn’t even start popping up in my life until I was also leading a church! He never sat me down and told me to do _______, I just saw it and eventually did it.

So, in light of the fact that I have a child on the way (and for the record: Yes, it’s just one. Yes, we are sure. There’s only one heartbeat. Someone always asks), one of the things I am chewing on is this:

Would I want my child to copy what I’m doing? What am I doing now that I will be throwing toward my child that will most certainly be caught?

What God wants us to strive for is to live such a life that we feel comfortable telling our children (and those around us, for that matter) what Paul told the Corinthian church:

Would we say that to your children right now?

Let’s think of it another way: Is there anything we are doing that we would beg them to not do?

As an expectant dad, these are things I am thinking about. “Do as I say and not as I do” does not work; after all, more is caught than taught, and thus what I do is going to be what my child does- even if I tell them to do the opposite.

Let’s think about what we’re throwing- because our children will catch it.