Thank God for baseball! Actually thank God for the Phillies, because if they were the Pirates I would not exactly have spring to look forward to. But I have the Phillies to look forward to, and boy do I need something to look forward to. It has been a hard winter. I can’t recall a more crazed winter of snow, cancellations and screwed up schedules. So the fact that baseball and the Phillies are here, I can ponder days and nights sitting in the house or at the Bank watching the game. That beats winter any day of the week.

So with baseball spring training in full swing, the interviews with players have begun. How are things going? What are you working on this year? What are your expectations? During one of these interviews Chase Utley  said in response to a question about improving year after year, “If you do something you love, then you get good at it, because you want to be better.” At first, this made sense to me, but then I began to ponder a more theological understanding to his statement, I am a pastor after all, what else do you think I do? I asked myself, do I love being a Christian?

It may seem like an odd question, and perhaps it is, but I am not sure I have ever considered it this way. I think I asked this question because of our Lenten study on the Letter of James. The small group has decided that James is a pretty hard task master who message is rather simple. Of course, just because the message is simple, this doesn’t mean that following the message is simple. James proclaims that good works manifest themselves in a person of true faith and he does not believe that faith alone is what makes us righteous. One need to be bearing fruit to prove that we are living the faith, to say “I believe” is not enough. For James it is pretty black and white, you are either living as a disciple of Christ or you are not, and I think many of us are determining that by James’s standard we are falling short.

In discussing this topic with the group, I have pointed out that when we understand the grace that God has given to us, when we realize the length and breadth that God has gone through to redeem us, then the only true response is to desire to be that which God desires us to be. Naturally then, good works would stem from our faith. But Utley’s comments have change this a bit, perhaps not much, but then again, perhaps this ball player’s comments are forcing me to reframe the discussion. Perhaps the question is more appropriately asked, “Do we love being a Christian?”

If we love being a Christian, then we will only desire to do the good works of the faith. If we love being a Christian, we will strive to study scripture, spend time with God, share with one another, care for others. If we love being Christian, every day we will attempt to be closer to the image of Christ, seeking to be the best we can be. But it begins with that question, do we love being a Christian?

So, do we?