I watched some of the 60 minutes interview with Tony Bosch last night before I became disgusted with the whole thing and switched to some movie I had already seen.
Bosch, for those who don't read baseball material, has accused Alex Rodriquez, a third baseman for the New York Yankees, of taking performance enhancing drugs. Rodriquez denies this. Major League Baseball, for the most part on Bosch's word, has suspended Rodriquez for a year or 162 games plus any post-season games the Yankees might play.
Bosch and Rodriquez are both guilty of a lot of things, I think. But what I want to explore this morning is the notion that someone can be good at something, really, really good at something and yet there is this inner beast that causes that person to do anything (and I mean anything) to be what they feel is the best.
The most telling quote of the night, to me, was when Bosch said, "He wanted to achieve all his human performance or in this case, sports performance, objectives."
How many of us want to achieve all our human performance? I don't find anything wrong with that. I want to be the best pastor, best preacher, best husband, father, grand-father, writer, etc. Shouldn't we be in the business of trying to do the best with what God has given us.
Rodriquez was that, ironically. He was a great player from the time he broke into the major leagues at the tender age of 19.
But here's where things go wrong, friends. He wanted more. Always more. He wanted to be more than he was. So, apparently he went out and tried to buy it. He coveted something beyond greatness.
Isn't it always that one more thing that threatens us, breaks us?
The Bible has plenty to say about such, but what we'll stick to is the notion of envy and coveting what others have. Envy is a feeling of discontent or covetness with regards to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc.
The Bible tells us in Proverbs 23:17 -- "Do not envy sinners but continue to fear the Lord."
Proverbs 24:1 says "Don't envy evil people or desire their company."
In Ezekiel, God says, "Because I made this tree so beautiful, and gave it such magnificent foliage, it was the envy of all the trees of Eden, the garden of God."
The Bible tells us of coveting in what we call the ten commandments, "You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”
Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, "At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life."
Serious business, this envy or coveting. In simple terms, Rodriquez, like many, many of us, apparently wanted to be the best home run hitter in baseball history that he cheated everyone else. He wanted to possess what Barry Bonds, who likewise has been accused of taking PEDs, had -- the home run record. Bonds wanted what Henry Aaron had, the home run record.
Now, at its core there is nothing wrong with wanting to work hard to be the best at something. But when it becomes an obsession, when one does things wrong in order to gain the possession of someone else, oh my.
The real problem is we live in a culture that says it's okay to do this. We live in a society that has people re-arranging their looks through surgery in order to do what they felt they couldn't with their previous looks. We live in a society that fills its gaps with drugs and alcohol. We live in a society in which the rich do not look to the greater good, but instead look to make themselves richer.
Coveting, envying, begrudging all belong together in the role call of what we can't do.
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