Mad Dog

A friend of mine, Brian Keel, writes a weekly email that is usually very thought provoking and very good. This past week he sent this which I wanted to share with you:

Greg Maddux retired from baseball this week after a career that spanned more than twenty seasons. He was not particularly big, nor strong, nor fast. He used control of his pitches instead of power, and he threw slower when in a jam instead of faster. To see him in street clothes with his glasses on you may have fancied him a teacher or even a CPA. Yet he retired with the 8th most victories (355) and the 10th most strikeouts (3,371) in the history of baseball. He played defense, winning a record 18 Gold Gloves and had 180 sacrifice bunts as a batter. He is a living, breathing oxymoron. Even is his nickname, “Mad Dog”, is a laugh.

“I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong … but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11

These words were penned by Solomon, perhaps the wisest, richest and most powerful man of ancient times. He likely qualified as both swift and strong. Yet like Maddux his experience seems to have taught him that preparation and consistency were more valuable. Preparation gives us the tools we need to make a fast and appropriate response to a variety of situations we may encounter. Consistency allows others to count on getting the same response each time we hit that situation. That can make us good leaders, great teammates and successful in the big race of life.

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