Yogi

Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra, “one of baseball’s greatest catchers and characters” (as Bruce Weber styled him), died on Tuesday, September 22, 2015.  He was 90-years-old.  He was a very successful professional baseball player, an integral part of 10 New York Yankees championship teams.  Bruce Weber of the New York Times noted that Yogi “may be more widely known as an ungainly but lovable cultural figure, inspiring a cartoon character and issuing a seemingly limitless supply of unwittingly witty epigrams known as Yogi-isms.”

Weber cites some of Yogi’s well-known and “somehow both nonsensical and sagacious” pronouncements with some context:

“You can observe a lot just by watching,” he is reputed to have declared once, describing his strategy as a manager.

“If you can’t imitate him,” he advised a young player who was mimicking the batting stance of the great slugger Frank Robinson, “don’t copy him.”

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” he said, giving directions to his house. Either path, it turned out, got you there.

“Nobody goes there anymore,” he said of a popular restaurant. “It’s too crowded.”

Let’s alter one of these Yogi-isms to lead us to the truth: “When you come to a fork in the road, take the right road.”

Jesus informs us that there are only two roads on which we may travel, and we must choose between them:  "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

The path to life is through Jesus, God’s Son.  Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).  Our sins place us on the path to destruction, but Jesus died for our sins so that we may have our sins forgiven and access the path to eternal life (Romans 6:23).

In order to access the way which leads to life, we must place our faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from our sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before others (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:38).  Then, we must continue to follow Him faithfully, and as we do so, His blood will continue to cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

Two roads.  One leads to life; the other to destruction.  One is narrow; the other is wide.  One is easy; the other is difficult.  One is popular; the other less traveled.

Which road will you choose?

“When you come to a fork in the road, take the right road.”

Won’t YOU?

-- David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from “Yogi Berra, Yankee Who Built His Stardom 90 Percent on Skill and Half on Wit, Dies at 90” by Bruce Weber of the New York Times, 9/23/2015.

David A. Sargent, Minister