Why the LSU Baseball Program Reminds Me of The Greatest Hits of Spirituality
You ever notice how often our realizations of the very best things in life, what we call its higher goods, are gifts that will ensue much more like indirect by-products rather than coming to us as end products we may otherwise directly pursue?
What are those higher goods? Truth, beauty, goodness, faith, hope, love, forgiveness and other such manifestations of God!
What's the simplest way to distinguish the higher & lesser goods? The lesser must be enjoyed in moderation. There are no rules that limit our practice of the higher goods.
The lesser goods are often realized as extrinsic rewards, which are goods that we pursue as "sought after." It's not that the higher goods are not worthy of our desires. It's just that, ordinarily, we finally realize them as the intrinsic rewards of properly ordered processes. That's to speak of processes & practices, which are, themselves, their own reward, like the satisfaction of a job well done.
So, we say "do your best & let God take care of the rest."
I like to say that the quest, itself, is your grail and the journey, itself, is your destination!
And we must attend to the rules particular to each process. For example, if you want a person to laugh, you don't order them to laugh. Rather, you tell them a joke!
There are many of life's higher goods which simply must ensue from intrinsically rewarding practices, actions we take that are, themselves, their own rewards. Virtues in morality & spirituality and virtuosity in the arts & athletics are all formed from habitual patterns and not ordinarily attained in isolated acts.
Not only must so many of life's higher goods ensue from practices, which grow our virtue & virtuosity, some can actually be frustrated when pursued for less than noble reasons!
The pursuit of Enlightenment works like that. If we pursue Enlightenment solely for our own benefit, we will frustrate the process. Rather, we pursue Enlightenment out of compassion for all who would otherwise have to suffer our unenlightened selves!
All the great 3rd Wave psychologists, who studied self-actualization, eventually realized that self-actualization is fostered, primarily, by those who've developed habits of self-transcendence. Without self-transcendence, our self-actualization practices will be largely frustrated. In athletics, it's about the team; in music - the harmony; in spirituality - communion.
In putting Others & the Kingdom, first, we aren't talking in either-or terms but about matters that must be properly ordered & ordinate or moderated. Higher goods, again, can be enjoyed without moderation Against love there is no law. Godliness can be practiced without constraint.
St Bernard described a ladder of love to be climbed through formative spiritual practices: love of self for sake of self; love of God for sake of self (enlightened self-interest & imperfect contrition); love of God, others & cosmos for the sake of God, others & cosmos (agape & perfect contrition); love of self for sake of God, others & cosmos. How children grow in relationship to their parents is directly analogous to how we grow to love our God! Are we not generally satisfied if we can form our children into an enlightened self-interest?!
At any rate, as we climb such love ladders or progress in our spiritual lives, we go beyond each stage but not without the earlier loves. Same for Lewis' 4 Loves: storge, eros, philia & agape. Remember, if you are on an airplane and the oxygen masks suddenly drop, before you start helping others with their masks, put YOUR mask on!
What & who made me think about such things today?
Of course, LSU in the CWS & Coach Jay Johnson!
After LSU’s open practice, Coach Johnson said: "Can’t write an article about it, but it’s all about execution.”
After defeating UCLA, Johnson remarked: “It’s not just winning, to us; it’s how we win and how we get better at this craft.”
The philosophy he's brought to the LSU Baseball program is a rearticulation of Bill Walsh's "West-Coast revolution," which emphasized precision and culture over score watching. This was during the same era when Bill Parcells centered on habits and fundamentals. Bill Belichick then boiled that down to “Do your job." From that Parcells tree, Nick Saban distilled it all into "the process."
For those who'd dig deeper, these above secular articulations of "the process" are only true, beautiful & good because they reiterate sacred truths, like.
“Whoever is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much…”
~ Luke 16:10"
"But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."
~ Matthew 6:33
“God does not look so much at the greatness of our works as at the love with which they are done.”
~ St. Teresa of Avila
“We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners all our life!”
~ Thomas Merton
