Blown SAVE

I will not go into a lot of baseball lingo or try and recap game 6 of the 2011 World Series here because this is really not about that. However, to bring this home we have to lay a little baseball foundation.

Last night (October 27, 2011) my Texas Rangers took a 7-4 lead into the 9th inning of game 6. A game in which, had they won, would have become World Series Champions for the first time in their History, and for the first time in 39 years I would not have to say "Next Year" in regards to them winning it all.

So with a 3 run lead, the manager, Ron Washington decides to bring in his star reliever Neftali Feliz. A position known in baseball as the CLOSER. Neftali had already "SAVED" 6 games in the playoffs and had "SAVED" 32 games during the regular season.

If you are a baseball fan you know what happened. With a 3 run lead and Feliz 1 strike away from winning the World Series and "SAVING" game 6 for his team.... He blew the "SAVE". The Rangers lost and that particular opportunity was lost as well.

I tucked my son, Riley, in bed and he, of course, had tears flowing. He cried himself to sleep. As I walked back to the bedroom, very dejected myself, I began to think of what Neftali Feliz was thinking. How did he feel and what was going on inside of him after "BLOWING A SAVE"? This was not any "SAVE" it was game 6 of the World Series!!!

I sat there and thought several times how close he was to doing it, and why not just 1 more strike and all of the "woulda"-"shoulda"-"coulda's".

Then it began to happen. My thoughts of all of the times in my life that I had blown the "SAVED" began to come to me. How many people would be "SAVED" today if I had not blown it? How many opportunities to get the "SAVE" have I not taken? How many people were close, one word away, and I did not do what the Holy Spirit wanted me to do to???

Neftali blew a "SAVE" last night, but how many Sundays in the last 24 years have I blown one? How many times in a truck with a friend or talking to a stranger had I blown the save opportunity?
How many have come into my church that I did not do my part in loving them, welcoming them or reaching them? How many through my actions in public that instead of leading them to a "SAVE" I turned them off and away???

How many saves have I blown as a disciple of Christ? How many times has the Holy Spirit brought me into a situation with the intention to stop the hurt, end the confusion, or speak the truth and I simply blew it?
Neftali Feliz was a strike away ...ONE STRIKE AWAY... from being a hero and giving me a chance to celebrate a championship!!! No doubt after laying there and being spoken to by the Holy Spirit I realized I was ONE WORD AWAY, ONE LOVING ACTION AWAY, or ONE ACT OF CARE AWAY from a "save".
So today as much as I still regret the Rangers loss and Neftali's blown "SAVE"... I grieve those that I have blown it with. The opportunities I have had in my life and ministry to "SAVE" someone from defeat, a life without Christ, being unloved, or simply being a friend at the right time.

Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life. He is the only way to heaven. He is the only life you can really have. Jesus does not want to be an accessory to you, but rather Lord. If you repent from sin, turn your heart, your thinking and your body over to the Lord you too can be His disciple. You will not be perfect, but you will be His.

Jesus NEVER blows a SAVE. Regardless of who has hurt you, offended you, or led you astray, you are still accountable for your life and your actions. We can blame the Neftali Felize of your life, but Jesus is there to pick up the pieces. He is here today to save you.

Game 6 for the Rangers needed to be "SAVED" and it was not and it will forever go into the books as a defeat. You need to be "SAVED" as well and before your last out, before you breathe your last breath, and before you invest all of your life into the world...come to Jesus for salvation.

-Pastor Randall Bost