Man of Impact

  There was a long and lanky guy on my high school freshman baseball team whose agility just couldn’t keep pace with his growth spurt. Rick stood about 6’6” and he seemed to be growing about six inches a week. He could snag a high throw from out of the clouds, but if a grounder came at him, he’d usually fumble it. Back then, I was a little guy with a big mouth, and so I poked fun at him. Rick was a big, easy target for a witty guy like me. At our 20-year high school reunion, I was asked to give a benediction. I was the token minister in our class. By then, I had come to faith in Christ and my life was radically different. My nasty tongue had been tamed. After offering my blessing, I overheard Rick saying to another classmate,  “I can’t believe Jim Morud is a Christian minister.” Now, why do you suppose he had such a hard time believing that? Do you suppose it had something to do with how I used to joke about him? Years later, he probably still felt the sting of those old cutti...