April Fools is for baseball fans – especially those who still believe in the Kansas City Royals…

Tim Everly and I are headed to the ball game tomorrow. Which is important, but not as significant as my thoughts on the Royals. For the first time in recent memory, I can not muster the ability to believe this will be the year. I suppose it could be an off season that saw David DeJesus traded – and I really loved how he played. Then the more famous move, sent Zack Grienke off to the Brewers… At the time all I could muster was to say, “at least it was not the Yankees (the only positive about being in the South was that everyone agreed with me on the Yankees being evil – of course I am not sure we were talking about the same thing…)…

Of course these trades may work out and it seems we have the greatest minor league system in the history of baseball. But this only becomes evidence for what I am told whenever I speak about the Royals outside KC,

Oh you mean that minor league team…

Moving back to KC it has been refreshing to see people sporting* the Royals. And you would think now that I have a group of supporters, it would be easier to believe… but I have also felt a return of the Midwestern practicality. After-all it would take a miracle for this year’s Royals to win the world series…  *Random, but how did our soccer team go from the Wiz, which was at least unique, to Sporting. It sounds like it should be a store to buy Chiefs and Royals gear…

This all came to a head when my former youth pastor bet me a steak dinner the Royals would lose 100 games. I took the offer and he told me he would set the dinner up for Labor Day… Jerk (for those who do not know, this would be a month before the season ends)…

Now, let me say, I do not gamble**. But this was not gamble – there is no way the Royals will lose 100 games. This is the year they will start to compete… only when my heart spoke these words, my brain answered and I was no longer sure. For the first time I wondered if the Royals would lose 100 games. Certainly they have before lost so many, but I never started a season wondering if it was a option… **Though interestingly the Bible does not directly outlaw gambling… This blew my mind in college…

The point. It is strange when we stop believing. And it begins when our logic overcomes our heart. After all Luke Hochevar is our opening day starter and Billy Butler is our only legitimate hitter. Everywhere you look is a player who was cast-off from another team (like Francoeur and Cabrera) or a young guy with huge potential – that is never realized (like Gordon). How can we NOT lose one hundred games??? And yet even as I write, there is a quiet beating… what if all this upside comes together? After all, nearly every  player was heralded. And gracious, they are all younger than me – and I still have upside… and then sprinkle in a minor league player or two and by July – Joey will already owe me the steak dinner!

In the same way, when logic dominates us, we say people do not rise from the dead… Or more pointedly to the church, we say, we can not feed the whole world. I mean, seriously, people can not pull bread from heaven… Or closer to home, we say the church will never be able to compete with sports on Wednesday night – kids won’t choose church over baseball… Or, closer to our church, we say Chandler can not move forward until we master our debt…

But in our hearts beats a new rhythm for life. So even while we plan and make decisions our goals cause people to cry “Fools!”