Kasey Hitt, MDiv, CSD
  • Home
  • About
  • Offerings
    • Spiritual Direction
    • Dreamwork
    • Reiki
    • Silent Retreats
    • Groups & Seminars
  • Wisdom Tree Collective
    • Train to be a Spiritual Director >
      • Spiritual Direction Program Information
    • Retreats, Classes & Groups
    • Planting Trees
  • Schedule/Pay
  • Events
    • Sign up for E-news
    • Register & Pay for Events
  • Writing
    • Blog
    • Prayers
    • Liturgical Year >
      • Advent Audio Divina
      • Advent Guided Prayer
      • Longest Night Service
      • Lent
    • Video & Audio
    • Retreatants Only
  • More
    • What Others Are Saying
    • Spiritual Direction Disclosure Form
    • Reiki Client Information Form
    • Common Questions & Answers
    • Resources >
      • Quotes
      • Links
      • Recommended Reading
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

How You Grip the Bat: A Life Lesson found in Baseball

10/11/2016

 
Picture
It's your turn.  You step up to the plate and get ready for the pitch.

How do you hold the bat?  Are you gripping it tightly?  

My son's first season of Little League just ended and I watched the kids step up to the plate one by one with bat in hand. Most clutched it with all of their might, hoping to get a hit.  And isn't it easy to see why a death grip might translate into a better chance to make contact with the ball? 

The truth is, it doesn't.

Don't believe me?  Watch the below video by Don Mattingly, MLB player, coach and manager.  In holding the bat loosely, a batter has a better opportunity to not only hit the ball, but increase their bat speed.  In other words, with less effort, they hit it harder and farther!  Isn't that a paradox?!

We tend to have a death grip on all of life.  

Harder equals better, so we think.  This is especially true of the spiritual life...so much efforting.  For many of us, we try really hard.  If we don't get the results we want, we try harder.  Our tendency can be to believe the more Scripture we read or the more we pray, the better Christians we'll be or the more God will love us. Instead we just add spiritual practices to our list of compulsions.  We white-knuckle spiritual disciplines like we do people and other parts of our lives, hoping that in doing so we'll have more control and favorable outcomes.

Thomas Keating once said, "When we do less, God can act."  He wasn't advocating lack of practice (it's still important for 6-year-olds to practice baseball skills!).  The difference is in how and what we are practicing. Are we stepping up to the plate and squeezing the life out of the bat over and over again hoping for a different outcome?  Or are we holding the bat loosely trusting that when the ball comes, we'll have the strength and power we need?  Keating was inviting people into Centering Prayer, a way of prayer that seems counter to our way of life...being still in silence.  

What if we relaxed our grip a bit?  What if we practiced holding all things (and people) loosely?  This kind of paradox-holding may be the spiritual exercise you need today.  So whatever the practices are that help you release your stranglehold on life, those are the spiritual practices for you right now.
​ 
  • ​Where are you grasping/holding the bat too tightly in life?
  • How is the Spirit of God inviting you to learn and practice having "loose hands"?  (If you're unsure, a spiritual director makes a great coach in this area!)


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Kasey is a scarf, ball and club juggling spiritual director just outside of Nashville, TN.  Play helps her Type-A, Enneagram 1 personality relax, creating space for poetry and other words to emerge. She also likes playing with theological ideas like perichoresis, and all the ways we're invited into this Triune dance.  

    Archives

    February 2023
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    Anger
    Animals
    Art
    Atonement
    Awareness Examen
    Beauty
    Body And Movement
    Body Of Christ
    Centering Prayer
    Children
    Community
    Conscious Breathing
    Conversation
    Creation
    Darkness
    Discernment
    Divine Feminine
    Dreams
    Easter
    Epiphany
    Faith Development
    Freedom
    Gratitude
    Holy Spirit
    Holy Week
    Image Of God
    Imagination
    Intercession
    Jesus
    Juggling
    Justice
    Lament
    Laying On Of Hands
    Lectio Divina
    Lent
    Liturgical Year
    Love
    Meditation
    New Year
    Pain
    Perfectionism
    Play
    Poetry
    Prayer
    Presence
    Saints & Mystics
    Scripture
    Shame
    Silence
    Spiritual Direction
    Spiritual Growth
    Spiritual Practices
    Suffering
    Surrender
    Thanksgiving
    Theology
    Vocation & Calling
    Wisdom
    Wisdom Tree Collective
    Worship Music

    RSS Feed

Schedule your own session or read What Others Are Saying!
Picture
Sign up for E-News
Picture

By clicking “Sign up for E-News” I consent to the collection and secure storage of this data as described in the Privacy Policy. The information provided on this form will be used to provide me with updates and marketing. I understand that I may modify or delete my data at any time.
  • Home
  • About
  • Offerings
    • Spiritual Direction
    • Dreamwork
    • Reiki
    • Silent Retreats
    • Groups & Seminars
  • Wisdom Tree Collective
    • Train to be a Spiritual Director >
      • Spiritual Direction Program Information
    • Retreats, Classes & Groups
    • Planting Trees
  • Schedule/Pay
  • Events
    • Sign up for E-news
    • Register & Pay for Events
  • Writing
    • Blog
    • Prayers
    • Liturgical Year >
      • Advent Audio Divina
      • Advent Guided Prayer
      • Longest Night Service
      • Lent
    • Video & Audio
    • Retreatants Only
  • More
    • What Others Are Saying
    • Spiritual Direction Disclosure Form
    • Reiki Client Information Form
    • Common Questions & Answers
    • Resources >
      • Quotes
      • Links
      • Recommended Reading
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact