Rod Carew gave out of his heart, then one of the youths he mentored gave him his heart

Ed Mylett was still smarting from a humiliating performance at the basketball championship game earlier in the day. That evening, he was hitting line drives — his true love – into center field.

He was holding and swinging the bat flat and choppy like his hero, baseball legend Rod Carew, when he heard a voice from behind the backstop. “Who’s the little lefty? I like this kid’s swing.”

Ed glanced back. It was #29 himself, Rod Carew, MLB’s hitting maestro for 19 seasons. Ed was flabbergasted.

“Hey, kid, how would you like me to work with you and train you? Can you make it to my batting cages every Tuesday night?”

Wilting before his hero, Ed struggled to find the words. Yes, yes, yes. He would be there.

In the following months, Rod altruistically gave of himself and mentored 8th-grader Ed Mylett, as he did selflessly with hundreds of other talented young people throughout Southern California. Not only did he provide technical expertise, but he also spoke words of confidence into the kids’ lives.

Rod is a born-again Christian. His generosity eventually proved the Bible’s admonition, “Give, and it will be given you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be put into your lap.” (Luke 6:38)

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One of those hundreds of kids saved Rod’s life, Ed says on his Aug. 24, 2017 Elite Training Library video.

In September 2015, Rod suffered a massive heart attack on a golf course. Golfing by himself, he was on the first hole at the time. He drove his golf cart to the clubhouse and someone called paramedics. Read how the kid he mentored blessed Rod Carew with a heart.

Image isn’t everything

People of this world focus on the exterior: makeup, facials, liposuction, fancy clothes, hot cars. Models are paid premium, and then not even they are good enough but have to be improved on Photoshop.

They say the heart is nothing. It’s inside. No one sees it. You can dirty up your heart with sin all you want — and don’t judge me for it. Look how beautiful I am on the outside.

But rust on the inside works it’s way out. Prince died of drug abuse. So much for all the adulation.

God tells us to not suppress the pricks of conscience that he has placed inside. You feel bad. You can’t sleep. You have a happy exterior, but inside you’re rotting.

You’ll only get peace from Jesus.

 

Can’t clean trash with trash

This may sound silly, but people try to clean up their mind, heart, anxiety, conflicts with — trash! What the world gives you is trash, through its sin and temptation. Inevitably, this brings problems to your life. Then going to the worldly therapist, or blocking out the world with worldly music, or drowning your sorrows in liquor, or self-medicating… you get the idea.

Only Jesus can clean your trash — and my trash. Let us return to the Bible, for therein we will find true answers and solutions.

The importance of WE

You can’t just wall humans out of your life. It is unhealthy. It should amaze you what love and acceptance to bring to your heart. It will bless your mental and even physical health.

Heart trash

The surface may be placid blue. But underneath, all the contaminants known to man lurk, as this photoshopped pic from Maria Louise on Google Circles suggests.

What pollutions hide in your heart? Only God sees into darkest secrets, in the murky plumbing beneath the splendorous veneers. God wants to dredge and clean.

He heals hurting hearts

Only Jesus.

Passion with Compassion

A racehorse named Secretariat

To watch  Secretariat was to laugh at the competition. The thoroughbred liked to start last and then bolt past all the other horses to win often on the last stretch. How the racehorse liked to run! It seemed like he was smiling.

After winning the Kentucky Derby and then Preakness in 1973, Secretariat seemed poised to win the Belmont and become the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years. But his old rival, Sham, stood in the way. Secretariat galloped out, taking the lead early on. His speed was so great, his owner feared he wouldn’t maintain the breakneck pace for the long distance. But Secretariat never slowed and won by a jaw-dropping 31 lengths.

When Secretariat died in 1989, the doctor who performed the necropsy discovered that Secretariat’s heart was twice the size of a normal horse’s heart. Herein lay his success. The powerful machine pumped ample blood to all his system, enabling speed and stamina.

When others look at your ministry, they discount it for superficial reasons. But God doesn’t look at the surface. He sees what counts, how large your heart is. And winning depends not on how large your church or budget are but on how large your heart is.