Smile Because It Happened

It feels weird when the world moves on without you. But that’s what it’s supposed to do.

Mar 17

It feels weird when the world moves on without you. But that’s what it’s supposed to do.

I’m not trying to be morbid. I just finished reading an article about former Kansas City Royals pitcher Danny Duffy and how he’s trying to make another comeback at the age of 34 following another injury.

It wasn’t all that long ago when I was a sportswriter and I was the one interviewing Duffy when he was on a minor league rehab assignment while trying to come back from Tommy John surgery. The minor league team he pitched for at the time ran the story in their monthly souvenir magazine.

I miss those days of sitting in the press box, interviewing players, watching baseball, talking baseball with managers, scouts, and broadcasters and writing stories about the game. I loved it. There wasn’t any money in writing about the minor leagues — not much anyway. But it was such a joy.

I hit a wall physically, though, and just couldn’t do it anymore. And nearly everyone moved on. All the broadcasters I used to know, all the players, all the writers, and every front office person except the president/general manager. And one of the photographers is still there too.

Again, this is the way it’s supposed to be. The game is bigger than any one person. We lost Vin Scully last year, who was the voice of the game, and yet it continues.

But one day, I’ll be in a nursing home, watching a baseball game with residents and someone from my past — a former player turned manager or a broadcaster — will appear on the screen and I’ll smile, wondering if I should share my story about the time I interviewed him, knowing nobody will believe me. But it won’t matter.

Don’t cry because it’s over, they say. Smile because it happened.

March Spotlight:

In this fifty-day devotional, readers will explore what the Bible says about the importance of persevering to the end, suffering well, standing firm, leaving a faith legacy, earning heavenly rewards, striving for unity in the faith, mutually encouraging one another, not growing weary, dying well, and much more.

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Here are some tidbits you might find interesting this week:

If you missed it last week, I’ve started a YouTube channel recently. Stop by and hit subscribe so I don’t feel like I’m speaking into a void.
“After this she thought she saw two very offensive ones standing beside her, speaking between themselves. ‘What shall we do with this woman? For she cries out for mercy whether awake or asleep. If she is allowed to go on like this, we shall lose her as we have lost her husband. Therefore we must, by one way or another, seek to distract her from the thoughts of what shall happen in the hereafter, or else all the world cannot prevent her from becoming a pilgrim.’” - John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, Part 2
Check out the Word on the Water book barge in London. Scroll down on the website to see what it looks like inside the barge.
“A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself.” - C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
If you’re a GenX grandparent, you’ll want to pick up this book by Tonya Masters Ludwig: Crowned: A Faith-Filled Guide for GenX Grandparents.

When Lee isn’t writing essays, devotional books, or Christmas novellas, he is a freelance editor, as well as a freelance journalist who has written hundreds of articles for various newspapers and magazines. He’s also a fan of NASCAR, baseball, tennis, books, movies and coffee shops.

Slow Down. Live Deeper.

Smile Because It Happened

It feels weird when the world moves on without you. But that’s what it’s supposed to do.