Matt Murton's New Circumstances

Matt Murton has had an interesting year. After struggling through parts of 6 seasons up and down through the minor league system with the Cubs, A's, and Rockies, Murton's contract was sold to the Hanshin Tigers for the 2010 season. All of a sudden this red-haired Gaijin that knew nothing about Japan was headed off to join one of the most popular teams for a country that goes nuts over baseball, and he had no idea what to expect. It's safe to say though that he didn't expect to shatter the single season hits record. Even though the previous holder, Ichiro, did his 210 hits in 130 games, and Murton did his 214 in the newly lengthened season of 144 games, it's fine to say that he enjoyed a great season (even if it wasn't legendary) with a final line of 349/395/499 with 17 HRs. Now he's been using his new platform to talk about God!

Murton was never anything fancy stateside. After a good season in 2006, he had his 2007 shortened with the acquisition of Cliff Floyd, relegating Murton to a 4th outfielder role. He spent 2008 and 2009 up and down without ever receiving regular at-bats in the MLB. By his own admission, Murton struggled to figure out what was going on after 2007. He often prayed to God, wondering if God had other plans for him. It turned out that God did. A Christian since the age of 6 after praying with his mother one day, Murton was sent to a foreign land where he relied on God exclusively to take care of his family, who braved the journey with him. God came through in spades, to say the least, blessing Murton's endeavors in baseball and allowing him a platform to preach the gospel.

Behold, God is my salvation;

I will trust, and will not be afraid;

for the Lord God is my strength and my song,

and he has become my salvation. -- Isaiah 12:2

Often times we may wonder why things aren't going well. We pray for God to humble us and draw us closer to him, then question God as to why he seems to be cursing our efforts in the world. Trusting in God is just that; trust. God wants to use you, and he alone knows what it takes to bring you to a place where you can trust fully in him to follow him. When things go off of our plans, it's not because God has abandoned us, forgotten us, or is actively working against us. Rather, God is working through our circumstances in order to show us the better plans he has in store for us. Matt Murton probably would not have gone to Japan without this sort of strange path, but I don't think he'd argue the notion that he's happy he's there now. God will provide us strength, opportunity, and inspiration to accomplish his plan, and we only need to trust in his power and not work against it.

Disassocation, Trust, and Bunting

The conundrum of disassociation is something that affects everyone to be sure, but Christians in sports need to be especially wary of it. I spent a lot of time crafting that opening sentence, so you should keep reading and see what I mean by it. By disassociation I mean the quandary of whether or not to tell people of a certain important aspect of your life knowing the repercussions it may bring. For example, a homosexual school teacher may want to shout to the world how proud they are of their life; they may also want to hold back on that for fear that it may invite trouble from parents who don't agree. I've even heard stories of doctors and other academics holding back telling the world that they are geeks because of the negative stereotypes geeks hold in such circles.

Let's look at a tangible example. Daric Barton (the 1^st baseman of the Oakland As) told the Chronicle's Susan Slusser recently that he came to know Christ in the offseason. She mentioned in the same article that Daric has been sacrifice bunting a lot more recently on his own volition, because he wants to help the team. To Slusser's credit, she didn't connect these two items directly (other than featuring them in the same piece, and relating them with the vague notion of "being humble and wanting to help the team) but that didn't stop fans from doing so. (see comments for most of the connections) Most of the comments are in a negative tone, since bunting as often as he does while being a good enough hitter that he should be swinging the bat in the hopes of driving the run in, is statistically bad.

I'm sure most Christians can relate to this issue. A lot of Christians have become too comfortable in their faiths, having experienced God's love but lost the fire to share it with others. We may feel we're at a delicate balance in our lives--the money is just enough to sustain us; our families have enough on their plates to think about God; or the ever popular "Evangelism just isn't my thing." While preaching from the pulpit certainly isn't everyone's call, I do believe we need to allow God to work through us, and our circumstances. I would argue that to deny the world of our story in God is to be ashamed of what we have become.

Why are we ashamed? We have allowed ourselves to become too concerned with how the world wants us to think, rather than what God tells us to do. The world tells us that God is a crutch for the weak, a catch-all belief for the ignorant, and simply illogical. So we stay silent. We let the world come to us, and often times feel woefully unprepared for the chances we get to tell people about Jesus. Can't we remedy this? Isn't it possible that we can be a little more up front in our faith, so that when people do come asking questions, we're no longer the two-faced overly comfortable Christian?

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. - Hebrews 10:18

With Christian athletes, this takes a very important role. These days folks are trying to examine the mental aspect of performance just as much as the physical role. We're seeing more cases of Performance Anxiety Disorder, Depression, and other crippling mental illnesses. We may fear that the acknowledgement of dependence on God may lead to people seeing us as unstable and/or weak. This is, again, shameful rather than careful. We need to trust the Lord. He has brought you to the place he wants you to be, and he has prepared good works for you to do, and entrusts you with them. We are not alone in these endeavours--we have God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and our fellow Christians to help us persevere. Though it may seem scary at times, and it may be a humbling experience, the Lord will do great things with what meager steps we may take.

So what do we do with Daric's case? Though it's probably not true that his faith has caused him to bunt more, we can trust that this peculiar story has helped out folks reading it. We can learn from Daric that letting the world know that we are Christian will draw scoffs, but it will also draw curiosity and eventual praise. People may use our mistakes as a way to insult God, but God will overcome their misgivings if they are prepared to allow him to work. While we don't need to throw a Bible at every person we meet, we can be more vocal about attributing things in our life to God to the public. Let's start by praying that God will give us confidence, boldness, and trust in him, so that he can do amazing things.