Each day an Opening Day

Is there anything better than a fresh start? Especially when that fresh start comes under a warm blue sky, on emerald green grass, inside a sparkling stadium brimming with full-throated baseball fans.

Opening Day is the best day of the sports year (even though we now have three opening days). On our 2008 Opening Days, we saw an extra-innings thriller in Tokyo, a walk-off home run by Ryan Zimmerman in the Nationals' brand-new park, and the Indians beating the White Sox after blowing a five-run lead (and ChiSox manager Ozzie Guillen admitted an ump was right!).
 
I flipped through the channels on my satellite radio, giddy as a kid who'd been given free rein in a candy store and didn't know where to start. It was sort of like welcoming home a new baby, or an old friend.
 
Before too long, the games will start running together into that familiar grinding cycle. The box scores will pile on top of each other, the highlights will overlap, and certain teams will see their fresh start turn into another losing season. For the contenders, the joy of spring will become the dog-fight days of August and September. Muscles will ache, minds and emotions will be strained, and whatever happened on Opening Day will be long forgotten.
 
In the end, only one team that had harbored championship dreams will see them realized. One out of 30. But as the off-season wears on and hot-stove deals are struck, that feeling of optimism will return.
 
A fresh start is a product of grace, really. It's not something we earn. Implicit in the idea of a fresh start is that there was a recent failure or trial. When I awake each day, I'm thankful for a fresh start, because I know I can put behind my failures of yesterday. Being secure in God's irreversible salvation is what makes that fresh start so sweet -- I'm not trying to rack up "goodie" points each day, but rather living for Him because of His gracious forgiveness.
 
I often feel worn down at the end of the day, like that team that's sitting at home watching the playoffs, wishing I had tried harder to be part of something great for God's kingdom. Then I go to sleep, wake up, put the past behind me and look for those warm blue skies.