Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Friday February 16, 2007

I am torn between two thoughts this AM, so I will combine them and hope they touch you in a manner that will cause you to love Jesus more and serve Him with more intensity.

Last Saturday morning I read that a friend of many years has gone on to his reward. He did profess faith in Christ and often gave testimony to this fact at numerous exhibitions. I speak of Eddie Feigner, known around the world as "The King and His Court" at age 81 has left us and the game he loved. A Softball pitcher, The King's fast ball was clocked at 104 miles per hour and he could make it dance along with the smoke. I had the privilege of batting against him three times in my life. In the year that I turned 40 I actually got a hit off Eddie. He was pitching blindfolded and the count ran full. He delivered the pitch and I swung. When I opened my eyes the ball was bouncing off the right field wall!! I had a triple against against the best pitcher in history. He had struck out Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Harmon Killebrew, Roberto Clemente and Brooks Robinson, in order, during an exhibition in Dodger Stadium. And here is Mrs. Lilly's Little Larry cracking a triple. Who knows what the majors missed when I took up the cross. The Great Blonde insists that Eddie took pity on me and wanted to further shame the rest of the team members by letting a 'preacher' (pansy) get a hit. I do admit that his pitch was one of the very few I hit over the years with my eyes closed. I will always remember Eddie's trips to Indy. Hey one for three is major league numbers!!

Anne Quindlen wrote:

"If your success in not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all."

I felt good about knowing and playing against the Gentleman King.

There are some apparent victories in my life that I am not so proud of. What are they? Ha. You should live so long. Well, okay a few for samplers to let you know what a rogue I truly am. Years ago a small Bible College conferred the honorary Doctor Divinity upon yours truly and with this degree came all the privileges appertaining thereto. Wow. In my youthful ignorance I thought this event to be truly astounding. Then I read where Paul Harvey and others held drawers full of 'honorary' degrees yet never signed their mail etc with the initials of the degree. Thinking people knew the degrees to be in fact mere decorations. I never felt right about using mine, nor do I criticize others for using them, but it was only in recent years that I had the courage to simply stop using the D.D. after my name. It still appears on some older books etc. On one occasion I remained silent while a dear friend introduced me to his college with the remark that I recently had 10,000 in attendance. I did not tell the people that while I had in fact set 10,000 as a goal, the project had failed miserably. I was considered a grand success. I felt worse about not setting the record straight than I had in the failure to reach my goal.

Anything troubling you along these lines? Than you know the truth of Ms Quindlen's statement. Paul mentioned in 2 Corinthians 8:21:

"Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit.

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