Play Ball!

Who is the wealthiest player in professional baseball? Alex Rodriguez? Daisuke Matsuzaka? Derek Jeter? Try Matt White. Never heard of him? Maybe that’s because he is a journeyman minor league pitcher. He plays Triple-A ball for the Dodgers and has only pitched in seven Major League games in his 10-year career.

 What makes Matt White so special is the 50 acres he bought from his aunt a few years ago so she could get into a nursing home. When he started to build a house, he discovered he was sitting on an estimated 24 million tons of slate. Total value: $2.4 billion. In one day he went from a struggling minor-leaguer to a billionaire. It makes all those lottery winners pale in comparison.

Do you wish it could happen to you? Maybe it already has. The richest estate in the world is nothing compared to the acreage Christians have reserved for them in heaven. The unsurpassed greatness of our future home makes anything on this earth pale in comparison. Which is why it is so strange to see so many Christians living as if this world was as all there was to life. Their four walls and roof are more important than their room in God’s mansion. Their 401ks take priority over their eternal pension. They spend all of their time chasing after the things that will have no meaning in a few short decades. I feel sorry for them.

So what is Matt White doing these days? Pitching in the minor leagues, trying to make the big dance. He is not working for the money; he plays for the love of the game. Not so different from the Christian who, knowing he has an eternal inheritance, is motivated each day merely by a love of his Savior.

Play ball!