My father was my first baseball coach. Nearly every time the opposing team’s batter was approaching the plate we would hear me dad’s voice hollering, “Okay Boy’s, Be Alive! Be alive out there!” And we’d yell to each other, “Be alive! Be alive now!”
And we all knew what that meant. It meant stop picking your nose and watch what’s going on. It meant stop throwing your glove up in the air and put it back on your hand, the correct hand. It meant stop watching the game on the field behind us. Right? “Be Alive!” meant for us to tune in to what was going on in our game, to be a contributing, active part of this team.
It didn’t strike me till much later in life that this was one of those baseball slang terms that really applied to life. Because we have a tendency to be distracted away from what’s truly important, we just seem to glaze over because of the routines of our lives and miss much of the excitement, adventure and wonder of life. We live, but we don’t really live. And I think the call comes to us Christians out in the ministry field the same way it does to those kids out on the baseball field – Don’t just stand there, don’t just get by, don’t just let life pass you by – be alert, be watchful, be alive! Be really alive!
And that is the simple message of our passage today in Mark 13. Be Alive!
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