Harry Caray wasn’t Chicago’s best songleader, but he was the best known. The 84-year-old sportscaster, the voice of the Cubs, died just before spring training this year, forever silencing his trademark lead-in to the seventh-inning-stretch anthem.
“Lemme hear ya,” he’d bellow. “Uh one, uh two, uh three … ” and we’d all sing, “Take me out to the ball game.”
Harry wasn’t slick, often mispronouncing names. An unabashed fan, he’d cheer each home run with “It might be … it could be … it is! Holy cow!”
He was Everyman. Even his theology came from the bleacher seats. In his book Holy Cow! he wrote, “I am not a religious man. I’ve made some mistakes in my life. Dutchie is my third wife … and I’ve paid a lot of alimony in my time. But I’ve always believed in Almighty God. I’ve always believed that if you live your life as a decent person, the umpire in the end will say you did it right.”
We have to say more than “if you’re a decent person, the umpire in the end will call you safe.”
While there may be more to Harry’s beliefs than I’ve read, this statement reflects the four tenets of today’s street-level Everyman Theology:
- Belief in Almighty God.
- Open admission of “mistakes.”
- A self-defined “decent” life.
- Expectation that at Judgment Day, “the Umpire” will call you safe.
Every time I watch a Cubs game this year and see the patch on each player’s uniform featuring Harry’s likeness, I think about his “statement of faith”: In the end, God’s gonna do what God’s gonna do, and I’ve lived a middle-of-the-pack moral life, and I figure that’s good enough for the Umpire to spread wide his arms for me.
I wonder, Is that faith? Or fatalism?
Is that trusting God or mere self-satisfaction? Is that relying on God’s grace, or denying any need for grace?
I freely admit I’m “not in position to make the call” on Harry’s eternal destination, but every Christian minister would agree we have to say more than “if you’re a decent person, the umpire in the end will call you safe.”
Where do we point people (and there are many) whose faith is just this fuzzy? How can we promise firm assurance of God’s acceptance? The Bible indicates the call is “safe at home” if we honestly answer yes to three questions.
1. Are you a follower of Jesus Christ? “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” writes Paul (Rom. 10:10). Willingness to identify with Jesus is one indicator of faith God honors.
2. Do you recognize God’s presence in your life? Some people can “feel the Spirit.” But even a decidedly unmystical Christian will be aware of inner conflict between the world of self and the world of the spirit (Gal. 5:17-18). That conflict is evidence of the presence of a new life, the Holy Spirit, at war with the sinful self. If we refuse to view our own sin as no-fault “mistakes,” but as a foe only Christ can conquer, our faith is well-placed.
3. Do you want to become more like Christ? Every person, even a Christian, will sin. The issue isn’t where we are in relation to the pack—middle, out front, or way behind—but in what direction we’re facing. Repentance is turning toward God, who is working in you “to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:13). If your will, your intention, is to become more obedient to God’s purposes, then God is at work in you, working out your salvation.
With this self-examination, we can help people approach the Umpire assured of his call.
It might be … it could be … it is!
Marshall Shelley is executive editor of Leadership.
1998 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or contact us.
