After a game when one of my players did not follow my signal and steal second base, I went to talk with him: “I need second base; I don’t need a lead-off hitter to get to first. I need a lead-off hitter who can get to second. If you are telling me you can’t get to second, then I need to find another lead-off hitter.” “I’ll get you second base,” was the answer. “Good!”

So often we are content to just show up—to just get to first base. We’ve got the shirt, we’ve got the uniform, we’re on the team—we’ve been saved, we’ve been baptized, we belong to a church—and so we just show up. We show up at church services, we show up at Sunday school, we show up at Bible studies. We just show up. We are content to be at first base. God’s bigger purpose for our lives is not that we just make it to first base or that we are on the team (although those are important), but that we give Him our attention and cooperate with what He wants to do in our lives and in His kingdom.

It doesn’t do any good to whine that “I’m not as gifted as that person” or “I have these circumstances.” God sees all that. He knows exactly how we are when He speaks to us. But if we want to join our Savior in what He is doing, we have to do more than just show up.