LWQ Fall 2009

The Balancing Act — Understanding Who I Am

Find me a New Yorker who hasn’t been grilled: “So what are you, anyway? A Yankees or a Mets fan?” The trouble begins with my response.

I grew up listening to the sounds of Yankee games on our black-and-white TV, rooting for them alongside my father who, as a teen, played dirt-lot ball with a neighborhood kid named Whitey Ford. And when Roger Maris hit his 60th homerun that sunny October day, my dad and I were glued to the sounds of the car radio so as not to miss that Yankee milestone, all the while trying to ignore my mother
bemoaning her beloved Dodgers’ move to LA.

But I was born in Queens, home of the Mets, and experienced the distinct wonder one summer of watching their first blue-and-orange ballpark rise up, tier by tier, from the vantage point of a fourth floor classroom at P.S. 99, where I attended a camp program for city kids. Week after week I watched “my” stadium emerge a mere mile away.

Yankees or Mets fan? The answer: “Yes!” My balancing act irks both sets of fans, but my fence sitting suits me.

What doesn’t sit so well with me: I haven’t been “batting a 1000” at keeping my daily appointment with my Today’s Light® Bible. The year began well enough, but there have been more “swings and misses” along the way than I would have hoped. The good news is that my heavenly Coach grants “do overs” when I strike out and encourages me with His “green light, go-ahead call” in Philippians 3:12-14: I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me … Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Time to get back into the game.

Nancy Graf Peters
Editor-in-Chief
editor@lwml.org

Full LWQ File: 2009fall.pdf

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The Balancing Act — Understanding Who I Am

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