A MYSTERIOUS FIND

I’m not sure how the March 2010 issue of Guideposts ended up on my coffee table, but here it is, staring at me in the face. If something is fortuitous enough to make it into my home, especially reading material, I usually peruse it from front to back cover,

once.

Rarely do magazines live beyond the first perusal, and this Guideposts is definitely going out with the recyclables.

That said, as a sixth grader, I remember going through great effort to preserve the mint condition of a particular issue of Guideposts,

the one in which Orel Hershiser graced the cover, back when he played for the LA Dodgers and helped his team clench the World Series.

God, faith, prayer, and love comprised a large part of Orel’s success. He gave the Christian readers of Guideposts a glimpse into the spirituality that, so he believed, was responsible for everything he had gotten out of life.

I didn’t preserve the issue because of the article, but because of the picture of him on the front cover – better than any baseball card. He stood in his MLB uniform, looking like king of the mound.

The March 2010 issue of Guideposts, on the other hand, has a picture of some talking head on the front cover I’ve never heard speak, not a talented baseball player, i.e. Orel Hershiser.

He was one of two pitchers [Nolan Ryan being the other] who taught me, not with their words, but with their pitching form. I could learn so much just by watching them throw sinkers on TV. That’s all it took.

Then I’d go outside with my glove and tennis ball and make nuanced adjustments to my own form as I pitched into an imaginary batter’s box on the side of the house.

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Tags: ::SPIRITUALITY::, ::SPORTS::, baseball, guideposts, kelly c baker, learning how to pray, motorcycles are dangerous, orel hershiser, pitching, prayer, revved up, what prayer can do

On the news, I learned of a terrible event. A horror story that made me wonder about the quality of people I share this planet with.

Here’s how it went:

Michael Brewer [15] owed Matthew Bent [15] $40 for a video game.

Worried that Brewer wouldn’t pay, Bent attempted to steal Brewer’s father’s bicycle as collateral.

Brewer thwarted the theft, and his parent’s called the cops, putting Bent in juvie for too brief a time.

Shortly after, Bent and his droogs snuck up on an unsuspecting Brewer poolside. Bent ordered Jeremy Jarvis [13] to pour rubbing alcohol on the lounging Brewer, and then someone named Jesus Mendez [15] set him ablaze.

Shake your head.

Tags: ::IN THE NEWS::, ::SPIRITUALITY::, burn victim, learning how to pray, miami, michael brewer, moe, money over everything, prayer, what prayer can do