More Than What You Own
John Fischer

Tom Johnson was a relief pitcher for the Minnesota Twins from 1974 to '78. A brilliant year in 1977 (16-7 with 15 saves) ran up against a torn rotator cuff in the shoulder of his throwing arm. Attempts to repair it and return failed. That was bad news for his baseball career, but ended up being good news for the kids of Bratislava, Slovakia.

Tom went on the earn a masters degree from a Christian university and serve as a pastor for 17 years until he got a vision for how his baseball skill and his spiritual gifts could combine to form a unique ministry in a former communist country in the throes of transition. He will now be conducting baseball camps in Slovakia nine months out of the year.

"It's a former communist country, the economy is in shambles, and they're trying to build a capitalist economy, trying to become democratic,” he said in a recent interview for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

He was compelled by the words of a high school teacher there: “The parents who grew up in communism are just trying to navigate this new life. They tell their kids that life is not about what you own, and the kids say, 'How would you know?' The parents have no answer…

We need people who grew up in an environment like the West to tell the kids that life is more than what you own."

Something tells me we could use the same message here. Life is more than what you own; it’s about finding your real purpose in life in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Maybe Tom can save those kids a few steps over there. “Look, we have all this stuff, and it’s not what you think!”

So there goes Tom Johnson, former pastor and Minnesota Twin turned Slovakian baseball coach. You never know what kind of unique opportunity can come out of the combination of skills and talents you have. For Tom it will be helping provide after-school activities for children who might otherwise wind up in gangs or on drugs. "I figure there are 50,000 people qualified to do what I'm doing at my church, and maybe a half-dozen capable and willing to do what I'm going to try to do there [in Slovakia]," he said.

"I'm not trying to put myself on a pedestal, but that's something I believe in very deeply. I can step into something unconventional, or play it safe. My faith compels me to step into something unconventional."

It sounds unconventional, but for Tom, it’s just God putting everything together and getting the most out of it — more than what he owns, that’s for sure.

Taken from an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune Sunday Sports Section, May 15, 2005.

PDL