How ‘bout those Astros?

As of right now in the 2019 World Series, the Astros are down 2 games to nothing. Speaking of nothing, nothing made me sadder than seeing empty seats behind home base in the last innings of the game, lots of them. I had stepped away briefly from the game to help my children with their homework and returned to see the Nationals had gotten 11 runs. 11 runs? Ugh. It would be impossible now for the Astros to catch up, but how could anyone leave the game early? It’s never over until it’s over, but in this case, I’ll agree, it looked pretty “over.” Still, how could anyone abandon their team? Isn’t that the point? Stay with them no matter what? Keep rooting. Keep waving that orange towel in the stands, letting them know no matter what, you’re “there.”

As an Astros fan for the past couple years, I felt the tug too, to turn off the tv. Abandon ship. It’s over. Let them wallow in what they did wrong on the field tonight and get themselves together to win the next one, but something about it seems so wrong. So, they lost. Yep, they lost a big one in game 2 of the World Series. They have a long road ahead of them to come back, but where were the fans? Too tired? Too discouraged? Couldn’t muster the energy to sit there in that painful seat just to let their team know that they were still rooting for them?

There will be a team that wins the World Series. I don’t know if it will be the Astros or not, but a thought crossed my mind as it related to coming back after a traumatic experience in life. Coming back for the Astros after losing those first 2 games will be incredibly challenging, but not impossible. Coming back after trauma is incredibly challenging, but also not impossible.

With us, as we step out of the crater trauma leaves behind in our lives, we have number one fan, who is right there by our side who won’t leave when the score is staggering and everything looks ominous and “over.” Our Father in Heaven is that fan. He is behind that home plate saying, “I’m not going anywhere. Even if I am the only one in this stadium, I’m not going to leave you.”

Recovering from trauma is an arduous task. Those people in our lives who “stay in their seats” and keep letting you know, they are rooting for you are gifts from Heaven, but even if there is only one fan left in a seat in the whole stadium, that one fan is there for each of us not only to root for us, but also to provide everything we need on the road to recovery.