Transition

How do you feel about times of transition? Whether it’s preparing for a new child, going off to college, training for a new job, retiring or looking after an aging parent, times of transition can present major obstacles which are difficult to convert into opportunities.

Not even the most famous among us are exempt from the pain of closing off one chapter in their lives and opening another. At the age of forty, in 1935, baseball legend Babe Ruth’s batting average was one hundred points below his career average of 343. His teammates could not hide their frustration with the aging icon as he could no longer catch routine pop flies, run the bases, or capitalize on his strengths as a slugger given the fact that the American league was thirty-five years away from having designated hitters.

In his second last game in the majors however, Ruth still had some magic from yester year left in him. In the last of a three game series against Pittsburgh, Ruth hammered three home runs into the stands. They were numbers 712, 713 and 714 of his legendary career. The last homer traveled five hundred feet to clear the wall at Forbes field.

Despite his accomplishments that day, Babe Ruth seemed sad. This was according to thirteen year old Sam Schillio, who had waited patiently for Ruth’s autograph after the game. A crowd had gathered around Ruth as he emerged from the locker room. Unlike the previous two days, Ruth refused to sign autographs. He seemed downcast. Schillio recalled Ruth ambling along and refusing to speak to him, despite repeated requests for an autograph.” He didn’t say one word to me,” recalls Schillio. “He looked so sad; he only played one more game and then retired. That was it.”

Ruth’s reasons for feeling downcast that day involve much speculation. However, a strong possibility is that he was in a time of transition. He could no longer play the game He loved at the level he once played it. His body could achieve moments of brilliance but he could never again achieve the heights of previous performances. The things that he could not do now overshadowed the great things that he could do on rare occasions.

The obstacles faced by Babe Ruth in the final games of his career provide us with the opportunity to learn a valuable lesson. Our self worth must be linked not to our performance which will fade with the passage of time and as our bodies break down, but to the life giving relationship with God the Father offered to each of us through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are quite small and will not last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory which will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see right now, rather we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever. (2 Cor 16-18) NLT.

Diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy when he was two years old, Terry Harris in the opinion of many experts within the medical and education professions, would never walk, talk, read, write or go to a regular school. It was recommended to his parents that he beplaced in an institution. In 1995 Terry graduated from Brock University with a B.A. in English Literature and obtained a degree in marriage and family therapy in 1999 from Tyndale Seminary.