As I pen this blog, the University of Tennessee Volunteers Baseball Team is set to duke it out later tonight with the Texas A&M Aggies in the rubber game of the best of three Men’s College World Series championship. Whichever team wins, it will be historic, as both are playing for their first ever NCAA National Baseball Championship.
Even though my beloved University of Georgia Bulldogs were eliminated earlier, when the MCWS tournament got underway, at least two other Southeastern Conference Teams, The University of Florida Gators and the University of Kentucky Wildcats, were also represented. And given that four of the eight teams who made it to Omaha were Southeastern Conference Teams, it is not surprising that the two finalists represent the SEC.
All that is to say that even if the Tennessee Volunteers wind up losing, at least the Southeastern Conference is guaranteed a 2024 NCAA Baseball National Championship! But I digress…
What I like about situations like tonight is that both teams have nothing to lose. Neither team has the luxury of a cushion, meaning that they cannot afford a loss. In other words, it’s do or die tonight. There is no fourth game in the series. There is no next game.
For this reason, one can expect each team to play with abandonment. By this I mean that all the normal rules no longer apply. Thus, starting pitchers who would normally be out of the rotation for several days resting up for their next start no longer have this luxury. They may well be called upon in a relief roll.
Everyday starters may be yanked from the game at any time in order to give way to a faster baserunner whose speed, in a critical moment, might just win the game. Such are the realities of the last game of the season. Both teams lay everything they have on the line. It’s win or lose, all or nothing; for there literally is no tomorrow!
I am reminded of a blog post I wrote some eleven years ago (back on 02/15/2013) titled “ALL OR NOTHING”. In it, I wrote about EON Productions, run by Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. These two men believed so strongly in the possibility of success in bringing Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels to film that they staked everything they had financially on their new production company.
For this reason, they chose the name of EON Productions, standing for “Everything or Nothing”. Needless to say, their bet paid off as their nothing literally became their everything when the various James Bond films eventually became the most successful movie franchise in all of movie history!
I’m sure both the Tennessee Volunteers and the Texas A&M Aggies will both be approaching tonight’s game with a similar attitude. For in each case, it really comes down to one thing: it’s everything or nothing!
One of my favorite Old Testament verses is found in Ecclesiastes, chapter 11, verse 1. The King James Version reads: “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” The New International Version translates this as: “Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may well receive a return.”
The point is that there comes a time when one must take the plunge! Every so often, the time and the circumstances call for boldly risking everything, as if there were no tomorrow. Or at least as if tomorrow entirely depended upon what one does today.
As I look back on my life, I recognize that there were any number of times when I willingly chose to conform to everyday rules and expectations. In short, I chose to play it safe. And for the most part, this practice generally proved rewarding.
But there were other times when I opted to take a different approach. On those occasions, each one arguably during a far more critical time in my life, I chose to lay it all on the line, to adopt the approach of “everything or nothing”.
Such times include when I chose to roll the proverbial dice and propose to my girlfriend, when I chose to give up my plans and surrender to the call to ministry, when I chose to leave my comfort zone and march off my map, as it were, as I followed the calling of the Lord. Etc., etc…
Every single time that I cast my bread upon the water, as it were, I found that received a reward that far surpassed the sacrifice I had made. And this brings me to the point of my post today, which is simply this: “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained!”
What about you, my friend? Are you content merely to play it safe? Simply to follow the rules and meet expectations? Or are you prepared, especially if the occasion warrants, to “cast your bread upon the waters” and say “Everything or Nothing!”
The ancient Romans were fond of saying “Fortune Favors the Bold”. So, it seems, does the Lord! Therefore, be bold, my friend. Day by day, as the Lord gives you opportunity, increasingly choose to lay it all on the line. Live as if there is no tomorrow. And in God’s perfect timing, your efforts will surely be rewarded!
PREVIOUS BLOG POST:
https://www.cleoejacksoniii.com/my-ongoing-thoughts/all-or-nothing2.
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/11-1.htm.
Even though my beloved University of Georgia Bulldogs were eliminated earlier, when the MCWS tournament got underway, at least two other Southeastern Conference Teams, The University of Florida Gators and the University of Kentucky Wildcats, were also represented. And given that four of the eight teams who made it to Omaha were Southeastern Conference Teams, it is not surprising that the two finalists represent the SEC.
All that is to say that even if the Tennessee Volunteers wind up losing, at least the Southeastern Conference is guaranteed a 2024 NCAA Baseball National Championship! But I digress…
What I like about situations like tonight is that both teams have nothing to lose. Neither team has the luxury of a cushion, meaning that they cannot afford a loss. In other words, it’s do or die tonight. There is no fourth game in the series. There is no next game.
For this reason, one can expect each team to play with abandonment. By this I mean that all the normal rules no longer apply. Thus, starting pitchers who would normally be out of the rotation for several days resting up for their next start no longer have this luxury. They may well be called upon in a relief roll.
Everyday starters may be yanked from the game at any time in order to give way to a faster baserunner whose speed, in a critical moment, might just win the game. Such are the realities of the last game of the season. Both teams lay everything they have on the line. It’s win or lose, all or nothing; for there literally is no tomorrow!
I am reminded of a blog post I wrote some eleven years ago (back on 02/15/2013) titled “ALL OR NOTHING”. In it, I wrote about EON Productions, run by Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. These two men believed so strongly in the possibility of success in bringing Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels to film that they staked everything they had financially on their new production company.
For this reason, they chose the name of EON Productions, standing for “Everything or Nothing”. Needless to say, their bet paid off as their nothing literally became their everything when the various James Bond films eventually became the most successful movie franchise in all of movie history!
I’m sure both the Tennessee Volunteers and the Texas A&M Aggies will both be approaching tonight’s game with a similar attitude. For in each case, it really comes down to one thing: it’s everything or nothing!
One of my favorite Old Testament verses is found in Ecclesiastes, chapter 11, verse 1. The King James Version reads: “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” The New International Version translates this as: “Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may well receive a return.”
The point is that there comes a time when one must take the plunge! Every so often, the time and the circumstances call for boldly risking everything, as if there were no tomorrow. Or at least as if tomorrow entirely depended upon what one does today.
As I look back on my life, I recognize that there were any number of times when I willingly chose to conform to everyday rules and expectations. In short, I chose to play it safe. And for the most part, this practice generally proved rewarding.
But there were other times when I opted to take a different approach. On those occasions, each one arguably during a far more critical time in my life, I chose to lay it all on the line, to adopt the approach of “everything or nothing”.
Such times include when I chose to roll the proverbial dice and propose to my girlfriend, when I chose to give up my plans and surrender to the call to ministry, when I chose to leave my comfort zone and march off my map, as it were, as I followed the calling of the Lord. Etc., etc…
Every single time that I cast my bread upon the water, as it were, I found that received a reward that far surpassed the sacrifice I had made. And this brings me to the point of my post today, which is simply this: “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained!”
What about you, my friend? Are you content merely to play it safe? Simply to follow the rules and meet expectations? Or are you prepared, especially if the occasion warrants, to “cast your bread upon the waters” and say “Everything or Nothing!”
The ancient Romans were fond of saying “Fortune Favors the Bold”. So, it seems, does the Lord! Therefore, be bold, my friend. Day by day, as the Lord gives you opportunity, increasingly choose to lay it all on the line. Live as if there is no tomorrow. And in God’s perfect timing, your efforts will surely be rewarded!
PREVIOUS BLOG POST:
https://www.cleoejacksoniii.com/my-ongoing-thoughts/all-or-nothing2.
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/11-1.htm.