Tales From The Bullpen by Jared Cudd

Oh my goodness, where to start? This is such a weird time in our life right now. There are so many things that have been changed the last few weeks, that are likely to continue for a few more months, maybe forever. With the coronavirus that has swept across the country, so many things have been altered. For example, in our line of work, school has went to distance learning for the remainder of the school year. There are so many things that this changed. Not just school, but the activities and programs that were to take place. There are no sports for the rest of the year. Businesses are closed. Many of the things that are still open have had to change the way they do business. They have had to close their lobby area and go to curbside to deliver their services. The list could go on and on. The bottom line is life as we know it has definitely been altered for the time being. But, what does this mean for the future?

That is a question that I have heard a lot about. I have heard people discuss this and have seen people on social media talking about this very thing. Will it be a good thing, or will it be a negative? Here’s what I know in the present time from a personal perspective. It has changed my family’s daily life. I have still been having to go to school with the other two administrators daily. There are so many things to get straightened out for the remainder of the year. There are so many things that we have encountered along the way that at first glance, no one thinks about. We have been serving lunches to about 200 students a day in the school parking lot. When we finish with that, I take lunches to my family as well. The crazy part about that is this seems to be the highlight of my kid’s day. When I pull in about 12:10 every day, they are literally waiting for me on the front porch to see what is in that paper sack. They get so excited to see what our wonderful cooks have prepared for them. It is the simplest of things that have became a focal point in our lives.

While we have been bottled up in our house for the most part, we are fortunate to live in the country where we can escape outside on days when the weather is nice to let them work off some energy. That helps a lot. It also helps with my wife and I’s sanity. While all this together time is wonderful, just like other families I’m sure, it can be a little too much sometimes. But we have had a lot of fun together too. We have played board games, whiffle ball, basketball, worked outside on farm stuff, and went for rides on the ranger checking cattle and fences. One day we even went “exploring” on our land. We parked the ranger and walked the canyons discovering all sorts of things. Perhaps the most fun we have had during all of this is watching movies together at night. Every day our kids will ask if we can have a movie night. Most nights we have done just that. We have watched more movies together and popped more popcorn in the last 3 weeks than we probably had in the last 3 years. A lot of the movies we have watched were from back in the 80’s and 90’s that Kristin and I grew up watching. The kids love watching those. The movies have been great except for 1 terrible choice by me. I won’t disclose what the movie was so that no one judges my parenting. But, after 15 minutes of the movie and 3 different scenarios that required some sort of awkward explanation of something that wasn’t appropriate for children of their ages (and maybe partial lies to put that conversation off for a little bit), it was a no brainer to turn the movie off and start a different one. I would have done it sooner but I kept thinking that was the only bad part. I did not remember that content being in that movie. Complete parent fail. But, I won’t forget that for future reference.

We have also had the opportunity to have church in the living room with the kids. There have been so many different churches that have streamed their service. We turn it on our phones and cast it to our TV. That has been such a blessing to be able to do at home. Yesterday we watched my dad and his service at Hinton on Facebook live. Which, if you know my dad, that is something special in itself that he was on Facebook live. Then we watched our preacher from Weatherford that recorded his message and posted it on the church website. After watching both of those Dax said, “so who are we going to watch now.” They think it is so awesome to be able to watch people we know on “TV”.

Why are we able to do these things? The obvious answer is we are ordered to basically stay in our homes until this awful pandemic goes away. But, the more complexed answer is that time has slowed down enough to allow these things to happen again. I can’t speak for your lifestyle, but I can for ours. We are definitely changing from things slowing down. We were always chasing things that in the grand scheme of life didn’t matter as much as we though they did. We were always going from one activity to another. Then, if and when we were home with nothing to do, we just wanted to do nothing. This reset of life has been great for us. We have been forced to do some things that we haven’t done in awhile, but are fun times for us and our kids. I had a fellow coach text me the other day and tell me she heard on an FCA Live huddle meeting that 20 years from now our kids will say, “Dad, do you remember that coronavirus thing. It was awesome. We got to play outside and play board games and eat together.” That really made me think about how our kids will remember this time. Hopefully we will do a good job during this time of making memories that will last a lifetime. But, more importantly, I hope that this changes the way we as a family do things forever.

I’m not saying that the things we have always done weren’t important. They are. They are a part of our life. We like sports. We enjoy watching our kids play. We enjoy all the things they are involved in. We enjoyed our fast and furious lifestyle. I just hope that this time helps us understand how to slow down and appreciate the things discussed earlier more. I hope it helps us to understand how to make all of those other family things a priority, not just something we squeezed in when there was time. There are many that are effected physically by this terrible virus. Our prayers are with those families daily. Our family says multiple prayers every day for those people and their families. There are also those that are effected by this virus from a financial standpoint as well. This is not meant to minimize those effects at all. This is an awful pandemic that will effect thousands and even millions of people worldwide. My heart goes out to those people effected by this. But, I talked a couple of weeks ago about how I am a glass 3/4 full guy a lot of times. I truly believe that these positive things can be taken from this as well.

My dad talked yesterday in his message about Psalm 46. There were 3 main points to it. The first is that we will face trials along the way. That is just a fact. The first 3 verses of this chapter address that. Then there is the idea that God’s presence during these times provide us with peace. That is discussed in verses 4-7. Lastly is the concept that God is with us and He will take care of and protect us. While this seems pretty simple, it is in times like this that sometimes we forget these things. We get caught up in our own thoughts and ideas of how to “fix” this and we forget to rely on God. Hopefully during this time another benefit that comes is that we slow down and enjoy some time with God. Hopefully we will enjoy His presence. He is here. He is always here. We just don’t always slow down enough to make time to be alone with Him. Sometimes, even if we do, we don’t have our mind right. Our mind is going 1000 MPH and we don’t just stop and enjoy His power and His calming influence.

My challenge for you this week is to slow down and enjoy all of these things. Enjoy some family time. Even if you aren’t with family, enjoy the use of technology that can connect you to your family. Enjoy a much “simpler” life. We don’t have a lot of options at this point. We are basically confined to our homes for the most part. But, think about what your kids will say 20 years from now about this time. What will they remember? Will they remember us as parents being on our phones and ignoring them 15 of the 16 hours a day we are awake? Hopefully they will remember how we made the most of a really bad situation for people all across our great country. Hopefully they will remember all the things that got to take place as a family. Hopefully they will remember that we ate meals together again. Hopefully they will remember we watched movies together (good, clean family movies). Hopefully they will remember that we watched church on the TV and it made those preachers we were used to seeing in person seem famous. There are so many things that we can take from this time. The bottom line is that there is nothing we can do or say that is going to change this situation. So one option is to be unhappy during this time because we are stuck at home. The other option is to make the most of the situation we are dealt. That option is to make memories that will last a lifetime. That option hopefully includes some great family time and hopefully growing closer to God. Pray daily for those directly effected by this awful virus. It breaks my heart to know that there are families that will forever be negatively impacted by this awful disease. Pray for the leaders of our country, states, counties, and cities. Pray that they make decisions that will have the best impact on the tough situation we are facing. Pray for the healthcare workers that put their health on the line every day they go to work. Check on relatives and neighbors to make sure they are doing alright and have what they need. Also take time to make memories that will last a lifetime. I have heard the term “new normal” during this time. Maybe our “new normal” will be something that leads to new habits that will have a positive impact on our lives forever!

We need You more than ever, God
We know You hear our pleas
There's nothing better that we can do
Than talk to You on our knees

This Country has lost focus on you
There's more division every day
We can only pray that at some point
As a nation we will again find our way

It breaks my heart to see the way
People treat each other
They are only concerned with themselves
Not with their sister or their brother

That's a big part of the problem
More selfish we have became
Until we as a country focus on You
It will just be more of the same

It's our job as Christians
To bring the lost along with us on our walk
But we have to back it up with action
For too long we have just talked the talk

It's time we take this country back
It's time we take a stand
We have to be bold in what we do
We have to care about our fellow man

We can't worry about what others think
We have to stick to what we know is right
We have to go into it well prepared
We have to be willing to put up a fight

We have to stick to our convictions
Be bold in what we do
We just have to hope and pray
What we do will glorify You

Let's all unite in this fight
We all have to stick together
This is just our temporary home
We are all going somewhere forever

Lord, hear our prayers
Hear us crying out to You
We know it's all in Your control
We just need to let go and let You

There will be no sweeter words to hear
Than when You say the victory we have won
Help us help others along the way
Come, Lord Jesus, Come

Jared Cudd - March 18, 2020

We are at a unique time for our country right now. The Coronavirus pandemic has swept away the attention of everyone in the country. There have been numerous things cancelled and postponed everywhere in the United States. None of this comes without debate. Some say it is necessary and some say it is a complete overreaction. It has caused even more division in our country than already existed. That is the unfortunate part of this pandemic. If you go online and look at any media outlet for very long, there are all kinds of ideas out there. I’ll let you look at those if you wish. That is not the point of this blog post. But, there are numerous ideas on this issue that cover a range of viewpoints.

There are a lot of cancellations everywhere. Sports have basically came to a stop. There are not really any sports that are competing right now from the college level to the professionals. That has a lot of people completely lost on what to do right now. Sports are entertainment and consume a lot of our time for a lot of people. There are school cancellations, church cancellations, concert cancellations, and so much more. Of course with this, there is an immense amount of criticism. Some think it’s overreaction while some think it is a good thing to be cautious. That is what has caused as much debate as anything.

I don’t know what is the right thing to do and what is overkill. But here’s what I do know. I’m not a medical professional. I don’t work for the CDC and follow this by the hour. I don’t see things from their perspective, so I don’t feel that I have any place to tell anyone else what is right or wrong when it comes to this. Now, I kinda fell into that trap at the beginning. I felt like my opinions were right, just like everyone else. Then I realized I really had no clue. I’m a principal and a baseball coach. What do I know about the medical field and what is the right thing to do in this situation? I can try to educate myself the best I can and do what I feel is right for my family. But I really just have to listen to those I trust when it comes to this matter. Sometimes we tend to want to tell others our opinions, when we really weren’t asked. We think those opinions are obviously right, because they are our own. We want to tell someone else how to do their job and be very vocal if we feel they aren’t doing it the way we think they should be. But the bottom line is we would be very upset if someone showed up at our workplace or got on Facebook and tried to tell us how to do our job. We wouldn’t like it if someone came and told us we were doing our job wrong when they were involved in a completely different profession themselves and didn’t do this job on a daily basis and see the big picture like we did. That’s just the way we work. What my job is in all of this is to follow the guidance of those that are in that line of work. A school superintendent in Colorado named Darrin Peppard made a statement about closings and cancellations and the handling of this virus that I feel says it really well. He said, “In the end, it will be impossible to know if we overreacted or did too much, but it will be QUITE apparent if we under reacted or did too little.” This is obviously geographical as well. Some areas are hit harder by this virus than others too. So some areas will have a higher rate of cancellations than others. So that plays a factor in those decisions made by the proper officials.

There are so many ways to look at all of this. But, if there is one thing that we can all UNITE together and do for the common good of everyone involved, that is look to God and pray during all of this. Psalms 46:1 says, “God is our refuge, and strength, and ever-present help in trouble.” We are experiencing something that is unprecedented in our country. I have never seen this kind of thing happen in my lifetime. I have never had a March with no March Madness. I haven’t ever seen MLB and the NBA stop their seasons for something like this. I have seen work stoppages, but not for this. But in the end, these things are what entertain us. They are fun to watch. It’s fun to fill out brackets for March Madness with our family or buddies and see who can have the best bracket. It’s fun this time of year when the NBA playoffs are getting ready to begin and Major League Baseball is about to begin. But, are these things really as important as we treat them on a daily basis? I would venture to say no, if we were completely honest with ourselves.

As Christians, if we all took a minute to slow down and look at all of this from the proper perspective, we would all agree that we should look to God for guidance and wisdom. We can use this time to be an influence for others. I’m sure discussions about this virus have came up with everyone at some point over the last week or two. Use this time to point others to the only answer that will get us through anything like this, God. John 14:27 says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

God wants us to go to him in tough times. We need to pray about this pandemic facing our country. We need to pray for God to lead us through this like only He can. Our country is no doubt facing a tough time. There are so many things, including satan, that are trying to tear this country and it’s people apart. We can make a difference. We need to always live our lives led by FAITH and not fear. We can spread the love of God around and help spread peace during times like this. We can trust God and help others realize that everything will be alright because God is in charge. My challenge to you this week is when you are involved in a conversation about this with others, turn them to God. It is easy to get into complaining or throwing opinions around about how it has been handled or how we think it should be handled. We really just need to trust in God to handle it and put our complete faith in Him. We need to pray to God daily about it and trust that His will be done in this and everything in our lives. If we can do that, we can have complete peace that everything will be just fine!!!