At State College E-Free Church the current sermon series is a chapter-by-chapter look at the book of John. In the past few weeks hunger and thirst have been discussed. I’ve been thinking about hunger and thirst lately (hopefully this post isn’t too disjointed, there are many ideas bouncing around in my head right now).

A major part of life is seeking satiation. First of needs, then of wants. People have all sorts of appetites. Some struggle to get enough literal food (something many of us in the US have a heard time identifying with). When food is plentiful the appetite is diverted to other things. Things like money, luxuries, toys, fame, respect, sex, excitement, meaning, family, entertainment, and so on.

Humans have a collection of appetites, some noble and some not. In an unchecked setting I suspect the less noble appetites are usually stronger than the noble ones. We all have an appetite for destruction.

This is where I think it is interesting to think about satiation. To an onlooker Christianity may appear to be full of rules and regulations. Yet I see many of the perceived rules and regulations as common sense. When a Believer spends time reflecting on the Gospel and reading scripture the result is the development and filling of a noble appetite. And this makes other appetites pale. In many cases the less noble appetites are revealed to be worthless or harmful, so they become less enticing.

So rules and regulations do not exist to make life more difficult or less fun. They point to the most fulfilled life, to the healthiest life. The goal is to cultivate a healthy appetite.

When it comes to food we learn this skill. As children most of us have an affinity for foods high in sugar (and probably foods high in fat too). Initially parents oversee the diets of children, some more strictly than others. Hopefully at some point we mature in our diet. Even though we could, we do not eat exclusively desserts  (maybe because we know it’s a bad idea in theory, maybe because we tried it and felt lousy). Once we start to eat a healthy diet much of the junk food loses its appeal.

My prayer lately has been something along these lines: Lord, teach me to desire the things that I should desire. Remind me of the Gospel. Help me to see things for what they are and to appreciate true value.

Starving myself is not a good way to begin making healthy food choices. As my appetite develops, suddenly everything begins to look good (and by good I mean good to eat). If I’ve skipped two meals turning down junk food that suddenly presents itself will be much more difficult than if I’ve consumed a reasonable meal or two. In the same way, if I fail to reflect on the Gospel and do a poor job cultivating the right appetites I will be more likely to make stupid decisions when faced with lesser appetites.

Food for thought.

Someone recently directed me to the Cyanide and Happiness web comic. I think this post is rather funny:

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

It turns out my head knows more about baseball than my heart. The cold, calculating part of me picked the Yankees to win the series in 6 games. The optimistic, dare I say emotional, me picked the Phillies in 5 games.

The Yankees did not blow the Phillies out in this series. For this six game stretch they happened to be the better team. They came up with big hits, got some timely pitching, and took advantage of some mistakes the Phillies made.

Chase Utley entered the baseball record book by slugging five home runs during the series, which tied the MLB mark set by Reggie Jackson. Here is something interesting as well. Chase played in 156 games during the regular season, amassing 571 at bats. During that time he grounded into only 5 double plays. In the 6 World Series games he had 21 at bats and grounded into 2 double plays. Sometimes  when you’re hitting the ball well a hard groundball finds an infielder and turns into two outs.

Ryan Howard also entered the books with a shiny new record of his own. He struck out 13 times during the World Series, which bested the previous MLB record of 12. Ryan looked lost at the plate, which was a sudden and unfortunate turn of events for the NLCS MVP.

After a team loses members of the media, fans, and management attempt to place blame on someone (it might be one person or many people). I do not place the blame for this series loss on any one player. I prefer to look at it as the Yankees seizing the win, rather than the Phillies giving it away. Here is my defense of some of the players/people/things I have heard blamed:

Ryan Howard: Had a better series than his Yankee counterpart, Mark Tiexeira. Sure he struggled, but credit must be given to the pitchers who shut him down. Also, his defensive mistake that cost the Phillies a run occurred in a game they won anyway, so harping on that is pointless.

Brad Lidge: Brad pitched one fateful inning and gave up three runs, sealing the Phillies doom in Game 4. What is lost is that he started the inning strong, getting the first two hitters. Johnny Damon fouled off numerous pitches (including a two strike pitch that came within the smallest fraction of a second/inch of being a foul tip K for the third out) before lining a single. The steal of second and third on the same pitch was due to a defensive lapse (I’d like to know what the Phillies were doing playing a shift in that situation). Once Damon was on third Lidge could not use his slider in the dirt, leaving him in an exposed situation against A-Rod. Lidge did not lose the game. It was good hitting by Damon, bad defense + smart baserunning, and a good at bat by A-Rod that did in the Phillies.

Cole Hamels: This is the toughest defense for me to make, because Cole is the Phillie I am most frustrated with after this season. He struggled all year long. His poor start in Game 3 after being staked to a lead really turned the momentum of the series to New York. The thing that is aggravating is that he loses his composure on the mound so easily. A few non-strike calls on borderline pitches, a defensive error, of a weak hit and suddenly he turns into a lefthanded Adam Eaton (read: self destructs and begins surrendering walks and hits at an alarming rate). But one bad start did not cost the Phillies the series.

Charlie Manuel: Charlie made some moves I disagreed with during the series, but they had a basis. He did not make any serious mistakes in strategy or cost the Phillies a game through moves.

So where should the blame fall? The Yankees played well and deserve credit for wining the series. The Phillies fell short because other the starters not named Cliff Lee did not pitch consistently, the bullpen had some ill-timed meltdowns, the top of the line-up struggled, the clean-up hitter struggled, defensive lapses were costly, the stupid DH rule was a major factor in NY, and Ryan Howard’s beard.

Congratulations to the Yankees, the best team 200 million dollars can buy. Hopefully we meet again next year.

In closing, I heard some faux Phillies fans on campus this morning bashing the team. They were blaming certain players for the loss (in vulgar and violent terms), demeaning the Yankees (in vulgar terms), and sounding terribly ignorant about baseball (in every word that was spoken). Their asinine commentary took place near me, and as I listened to it I realized that to some people they are what “Phillies fans” look like. And that made me sadder than the World Series loss.