There's an emotion called baseball that can be brought on with the whiff of rawhide or the smell of a dusty infield hosed down only moments earlier. I used to love baseball. I would walk to anywhere that a diamond had been worn in the grass or dirt to meet others on the same sojourn. No appointment was needed. Regardless of the bats and gloves available, they could always be distributed sufficiently to ensure play continued. In fact, the game could go on for hours with players coming and going. It would stop only momentarily if someone arrived with a new bat. Such a new piece of equipment demanded plenary inspection and some conjecturing as to what would happen if you got a hold of a fast ball with the new wooden marvel.
Over the years my image of baseball was battered and tarnished with selfish role models and senseless strikes. How could someone that got to play baseball for a living find anything to complain about. Then, Roberto Alomar spit on an umpire and the Commissioner of Baseball gave him only a slap on the wrist that was accommodating to the team. I could not believe the outright display of contempt was tolerated. Sure, baseball has had its ups and downs and truly rotten displays of character before and since, but our pastime has become an arena of the money-hungry and blame-gamers. How a player spins his performance at the post game interview has become more important than how he played.
Spin is not just restricted to sports and politics. It lives near us all. We can paint something bad we've done in different lights so that it at least becomes palatable to ourselves. Spin doctors were alive and well thousands of years ago too. James admonishes us not to blame our concessions to temptation on God. God does not tempt us. We are tempted by our own desires, and each time we give in to them, sin grows stronger in us. Eventually, sin will kill us. James reminds us that everything good comes from God. We don't need to play the blame game with God. We know that He will forgive us. We are the first of everything he has made on earth. When we are tempted to rationalize our way out of our current dilemma, we must drop the pretense and return to God. There is no spin that can save you from sin.
When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. James 1:13-18 (NIV)
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