Give Me an Oar

Todd Jones, closer for the greatest come-back team in baseball - the Detroit Tigers - was asked by Fox Sports about playing on the team for the second time in his career, this time under the leadership of Jim Leyland:

"I'm just so lucky to be on a ship that's headed to the postseason and on a ship that's going to the World Series. So when Jim Leyland hands me an oar, I'm going to row like there's no tomorrow."

The closer we come to understanding that Jesus wins, the more we are motivated to row like there's no tomorrow. If we think that winning - i.e. finding favor with God and going to heaven - is up to us, the more discouraged we get and the more tired we become.

"I have overcome the world," Jesus says. He always means what he says, and what he says always comes true.

"Go," he says, and he hands me an oar.

Help me, God, row like there's no tomorrow.

P.S. - While I'm hoping for a mid-western series with St. Louis, it would be irony for Jones to pitch against Carlos Beltran of the Mets: Jones pitched a strike to Beltran for the last out at Tiger Stadium in 1999, earning Jones his 30th save that year.