Frank Bettger Known For Enthusiasm
Give Life Your Enthusiatic Best
April 16, 2010 by drcaliandro
June 2003 Sermon – Marble Collegiate Church
Philippians 4:10-13
Will you agree with me when I say that without enthusiasm there is very little progress? Enthusiasm makes the difference. It gives a person the edge that can make the ordinary into something extraordinary.
When I was a very young minister, a friend gave me a book written in the mid 1940s. It’s called How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling, by Frank Bettger, who was a baseball player.
The book opens with a story I have never forgotten. Frank Bettger was playing for a minor league team in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He described himself as young, and very ambitious, wanting to get to the top.
Then one day he had the surprise of his life. He got fired. Frank Bettger asked the manager why he had been fired. Later he realized that if he hadn’t asked the manager why he had been fired his life would have been very, very different.
The manager said he fired Frank Bettger because he was lazy.
Frank Bettger was taken aback. “I’m not lazy.”
“You sure acted lazy. You were going around that field like a twenty-year vet, retired and worn out. Why are you doing this?”
Frank Bettger said, “Well, I’m nervous and I’m afraid, and a way for me to hide my nervousness and fear is to be nonchalant, taking it easy.”
“That’s never going to work for you. That’s going to hold you down,” the manager said. “In your next job you’ve got to wake yourself up and put enthusiasm into your work.”
A few days later Frank Bettger got a job playing for a team in New Haven, Connecticut. When he got there he resolved that never again would anybody say he was lazy. He would be the most enthusiastic player on that team.
From the moment he hit that field he was throwing the ball with such force that it burned the hands of the players who caught it. In that very first game he stole third base, slid in so hard that he knocked the ball out of the third-baseman’s hand, ran around and scored the winning run. And the next day the New Haven paper said, “The new player, Bettger, is a barrel of enthusiasm.” And then they gave Frank Bettger a nickname– Pep Bettger. And you know what he did? He cut the article out of the paper and he sent it to the old manager.
Frank Bettger kept going, and eventually made it to play third base for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Unfortunately, his career was cut short because of a severe injury to his arm. But he had brought enthusiasm into his life.
This is what he wrote about his experience:
My enthusiasm almost entirely overcame my fear. In fact my nervousness began to work for me, and I played far better than I ever thought I was capable of playing. (If you are nervous be thankful. Don’t hold it back. Turn it on. Let your nerves work for you.)
My enthusiasm affected the other players on the team, and they too became enthusiastic.
Enthusiasm made the difference in this man’s life.
If you look at the word enthusiasm, you will find that it is one of the more sophisticated theological words, but you may have never thought about it in that way. It comes from the Greek word entheos. Theos means God. Enthusiasm literally means God within. I like to think of it as God in you and released through you.
A great example of this kind of enthusiasm in Christian history comes from the Apostle Paul. You know that his life before his conversion was a mess. He was negative and he was hateful, destructive and unhappy. He was a persecutor of the early Christians. Then one day, when Paul was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians, he had a vision where Jesus came into his life and confronted Paul about what he was doing. And when that happened Paul’s life became filled up, it became empowered. He had joy. He was so excited about what had happened to him that he spent the rest of his life telling the story: This is what Jesus can do in your life.
He was a brilliant organizer, and he put his newfound enthusiasm to work. He organized churches, and established the church in Rome. So we can thank St. Paul and his enthusiasm for Jesus Christ and what Christ had done in his life, for our being at church.
In one of my favorite verses in the Scriptures, Paul talks about how, with Jesus, he can handle any situation, he can deal with anything that happens:
I know what it is like to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through Him that strengthens me.
That’s not theoretical. That is real. Paul let Jesus inspire him with enthusiasm for his life.
And then, in one of his letters to the Corinthians, he said, and I’m paraphrasing: “We get back from life what we give to it. You give a lot, you get back a lot. You give a little, you get a little. Those who sow sparingly, reap sparingly. Those who sow bountifully, reap bountifully.”
Then he said, “God loves a cheerful giver.” You know the difference it makes when you are excited about something, when you give with exuberance and excitement and enthusiasm, what a difference it makes?
Paul also wrote two letters to his protégé Timothy. He must have suspected that something was missing in Timothy’s life. He wrote, “I know that you have a sincere faith, Timothy. Stir up, rekindle the gift of God that is in you. Release the gift of God that is in you. Let it go. For we were not given the spirit of timidity, or cowardice. We were given the spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”
God’s power, released, is the same as enthusiasm for life.
Jesus was talking about enthusiasm in one of the great statements in the Scripture and the most comforting and encouraging that we hear. It’s in the gospel of John, where He said, “I have come that you might have life and have it in all of its fullness.” That’s Jesus’ gift to us, getting God in us.
There was that wonderful story of the man at the Pool at Bethesda – you know the story. This pool had waters which from time to time would be stirred. People believed an angel stirred the water, and that the first one into the water would be healed of whatever malady they might have. And so, naturally, people swarmed around this pool.
There was a man there – we don’t know what his handicap or illness was – but he had been there for a long time. Early on he had become discouraged because he could never get into the water first, and so he sort of relegated himself to the back row and sat there thirty-eight years.
Jesus appeared on the scene. My sense is that Jesus was looking that day for the most difficult case, and this was a most difficult case, because this man had gone into an I-can’t mode. He had identified himself as a victim. Any time we declare ourselves victims, we lose our power. We weaken ourselves.
This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. I imagine Jesus standing sternly before the little man lying on his pallet, asking him repeatedly, “Do you want to be well?” while the man made excuses for his inability to help himself, until after repeated challenges he was able to say, with strength, “Yes, I want to be well.” Then Jesus told him, “Take up your bed and walk.” And the man was infused with enthusiasm for his life, and took control of his life again, and was healed.
We might all take a lesson from this man’s experience.
Try being enthusiastic, even if you don’t feel it. You may surprise yourself. You know, sometimes we have selective enthusiasm. There are times we look forward to– a weekend, a vacation, going to a party — and we save all our enthusiasm for those occasions. The rest of the time we’re apathetic. Try putting enthusiasm into your whole life, so you’re enthusiastic about it. If you do that, what’s going to happen? You may fall on your face, or you may annoy some people who don’t particularly enjoy enthusiasm. But you have to take that risk.
One of the most enthusiastic people I know is Bob Marty, our director of television. He’s done a number of PBS broadcasts on Victor Borge, Dr. Andrew Weill and a number of well-known people, yet every Sunday he’s still directing our television show. Bob Marty is one of the most enthusiastic people I know. In the years that I’ve known him, I’ve known him to walk through the valley. He’s had some difficulty and he has, like all of us, a level of pain behind the front. Yet every single time I see him, he is enthusiastic about life and embraces new experiences and ideas. I want to thank Bob, because he shares his enthusiasm and inspires me.
Not long ago we had a memorial service for a man named Kyle Rote. Kyle was a long-time member, living the last years of his life in the state of Maryland.
Kyle was a football player, an all-American for Southern Methodist University. After graduation he played a number of years for the New York Giants, and he was respected, beloved and very talented.
But the biggest game of his life happened in 1949. It was the last game of the season– the Cotton Bowl — a very big game in college football. SMU was playing Notre Dame, who had not lost a game in four years. Kyle was the star of the game. He ran for 115 yards. He passed for 145 yards. He punted the ball several times, averaging 48 yards a punt. He scored three touchdowns, kicked two extra points. He was the offense for Southern Methodist. In the end, however, Notre Dame won the game, 27 to 20.
At the same time, a twelve-year-old boy named Warner Wolf, who is now the CBS sports person in New York, was listening to this game. He said later, “What I remember was the excitement and enthusiasm of this game, and when the game was over, the real story was Kyle Rote.” Wolf went on to say, “This influenced my career because what I learned as a sportscaster is you don’t have to win. It’s what you put in to the game that you play.” It’s your enthusiasm that counts.
And then, twenty-five years later, Dr. Theodore Hesburgh, the president of Notre Dame at the time, invited Kyle to South Bend, Indiana, to receive a special award. His performance that day in 1949 had so inspired them that they made him an honorary member of the Notre Dame team. They saluted him as “a great athlete, an outstanding opponent, and a true gentleman.” A beautiful thing happened because someone gave his enthusiastic best.
I’d like to read some excerpts from a poem someone sent me. Please take this to heart. It was written by a woman named Nadine Stair when she was eighty-five years old.
I’d dare to make more mistakes next time.
I’d relax. I would limber up.
I would be sillier than I have been this trip.
I would take fewer things seriously.
I would take more chances.
I would take more trips.
I would climb more mountains
and swim more rivers.
I would perhaps have more actual troubles
but I’d have fewer imaginary ones…
If I had my life to live over, I would start going barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall.
I would go to more dances.
I would ride more merry-go-rounds.
I would pick more daisies.
And I’m adding the last line:
I would be more enthusiastic. Let us pray.
For the gift of life, for the gift of Spirit that You give us, O Lord, we give You thanks. Help us to have the courage to be enthusiastic about who we are and the gift of life that You have given us. We ask this in Jesus’ name, AMEN.
Reprinted by permission
Note: Frank Bettger Taught Sunday School at his church in Philadelphia for 20 years
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