Changing Speeds

Our staff was treated to a day at the Atlanta Braves baseball game today by Christian Financial Resources. It was a way for them to show their appreciation to church staffs as we continue to work together. As a life-long, devoted fan of the New York Mets I wasn't invested one way or the other in the outcome of the game with the Royals. I do love a good baseball game though & a day at the ballpark is never a bad thing.

There was a lot of talent on the field today on both sides. There are some good young hitters and pitchers and the game ended with KC winning 1-0 after their closer struck out the side in the 9th inning. There were a few pitchers who were throwing in the upper 90's--pretty impressive. Honestly, there are a lot of good fastball pitchers who can throw heat. What elevates the better pitchers to another level is the ability to change speeds. If you only throw hard heat the batter will eventually get his timing down and crush it.

The same could be said of our lives in relationship to our daily devotion, our relationship with our family, our physical activity, and our commitment to our jobs. If we only operate at one speed we will tire more quickly and find that we are losing interest. To be the most effective you've got to change the tempo and your approach to relationships now and then to keep things moving forward in a positive fashion. Organizations that fail to do this eventually lose influence and buy-in. Relationships that fail to do this become stagnant and allow outside factors to infiltrate and disrupt their rhythm. We've got to learn to change speeds now and then to generate momentum and not fall into the trap of treating every life circumstance the same.