Category: Sports

Self-Care in the Time of Corona

This week is Masters Week. The week the golfing world descends on Augusta National Golf Club to witness the most captivating and beloved golf tournament of the year. Even if you don’t like golf, or watch golf, chances are you just might sneak a peek at a television broadcast this week. Magnolia Lane. The azaleas. Ray’s Creek. Amen Corner. Pimento cheese sandwiches. All the things that make The Masters experience what it is…the greatest week in golf.

But in 2020, amidst COVID-19, amidst stay at home orders…golf has been ruled non-essential. I’ve been home for three weeks now, working and trying to keep the walls from closing in on me. This week, honestly, is a kick in the gut. Masters week is a celebration in our home, we all partake. But this year, it’s a teardrop in the middle of an ocean of tears.

Five weeks ago, we lost our cat, Mags. Mags had been with me for going on 14 years. Than the social distancing order came. Than in the middle of The Players tournament (another Goedert household favorite), the announcement that The Masters would be postponed came. Than baseball opening day was gone. All these things are family favorites and traditions…gone. It started to feel like there was no time to recover from the body shots. Yesterday, was rough. A lot of shouting matches with the kid, irritability, and just feeling like an absolute failure at life, parenting, and ready to sleep through the rest of this pandemic.

As I was praying this morning, admittedly feeling sorry for myself, God directed me to the book of John. This is what I read:

John 10:10 NLT

“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.”

Satan doesn’t just want to destroy us spiritually, but wants to take away the love we have for our everyday lives as well. Satan wants to take away joy, love, togetherness and make you feel alone and hopeless. We know this. I know this. But it is still easy to let everything in life, especially right now, drag you down and rob the light and hope from your life.

Self-care, or self-love right now means letting Jesus bring life into your life, even where things may seem dead, to let the fullness of who Jesus is to us, guide us to find ways to life life to our fullest. That means letting the creative spark God placed in you take new root and start new growth.

I have decided to make our home a fortress of hope and love. We will not let the darkness of the current state of the world dim our light. We will love, we will hug each other, we will laugh and make memories. We will remain strong in the love of God and the hope that Jesus has given us. As my son reminded me the other day, “Goederts don’t give up.” We will live life to it’s fullest.

It’s Masters week. Today, we will watch the Arnie documentary on Golf Channel while enjoying some of his signature tea and lemonade. Tomorrow, we will watch The Greatest Game Ever Played, one of my favorite golf movies. Wednesday, we will play Tiger Woods Golf: The Masters and have a par 3 tournament, Thursday – Sunday, my son and and I will start a four round video game version of The Masters. Sunday, we will watch last years final round, enjoying pimento cheese sandwiches, chips and Azaeleas.

Make the decision for yourself, for your family, that we will all take time for the life-giving things that we can still do. Breath love, hope into your home, your children, and your spouse.

We have but two choices: we can allow the overwhelming state of the world invade our hearts and homes, or we can choose to infuse our lives, and those around us with hope, love and life.

Don’t let the thief steal your joy, kill your hope, and destroy your love. Instead, let Jesus give life to your joy, and make full your hope and love.

This week will be one of life and smiles, after all, it’s Masters week.

 

 

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Cecil’s Boy.

May 26, 1990. It was a Saturday. The day started out dreary and foggy. There was a light drizzle falling from the overcast sky. And I was in heaven. This day my Dad, myself, and my neighbors had made the hour and a half trek from East Lansing to Detroit to take in a Tigers game at Tiger Stadium. I remember that day vividly. I was 11 years old, a baseball fan first, not yet discovering my love for the hometown team. I was sporting my brand new Pirates cap that I had saved up my UPC’s from cereal boxes and ordered, and the White Sox were in town to take on the Tigers. The game was good, the Sox won 10 -4. But my favorite part of the game is when Cecil Fielder launched a monstrous solo home run into deep left field in the 2nd inning. It was his 18th on the way to 51, the first Tiger to hit 50 home runs since Hank Greenberg had done so in 1938.

But what I remember the most about that day is not the game. It was the on-field clinic before the game. Hundreds of kids got a chance to mingle with all of their baseball heroes. Trammel and Whitaker were there, but for me, no player held my attention like Cecil Fielder did. That man was gigantic!  I was amazed at how he smiled and talked to all of the kids about hitting and what it was like to be a big league ballplayer. My love for the game was cemented forever at that moment.

And now its 2012, I still love baseball, and Cecil Fielder is still one of my favorite players of all time. The game has never lost its magic to me, even though I rise and fall with my team, I never lose the joy that baseball brings to me.

But something big has happened in Detroit. Something that brings me back to that same feelings I had sitting on the field 22 years ago. Detroit, Prince has come. Prince Fielder, the extremely talented son of Cecil has landed in the Motor City. The Tigers are my team, but it has been a long time since they have had a player that I instantly identify as “my Tiger”. Justing Verlander has been the closest, but its hard to make him your guy when you only see him every 5 days. Prince though, magically without ever taking a swing in a Tigers uniform has become that to me.

It’s the connection I feel with his father, anticipation of what Prince could do for the Tigers and the amazing things that could be in store. World Series? Home Runs? Energy? All of these things are more than possible, they are probable, and likely!

At the press conference introducing him as the newest Tiger Prince said “This is awesome. It’s kind of a dream come true. I’m excited.” Me too Prince, me too.