Atlanta Braves are in the World Series!

For the first time since 1999, the Braves are going back to the World Series!!

One season after the Braves lost to the Dodgers in a seven-game National League Championship Series, Atlanta knocked off the defending champions in six. The loss ends the title defense of the Dodgers, who won the World Series after last year's pandemic-shortened season. 

Instead, it's the 88-win Braves who take the NL pennant during a season in which they did not climb over the .500 mark until Aug. 6. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that's the latest first-day-over-.500 date ever for a team that reached the World Series. The previous record was Aug. 3, held by another version of the franchise -- the 1914 Boston Braves, known to history as the "Miracle Braves."

Choosing Gratitude

Bold claim, I have never met an unhappy person who was a person of gratitude. A heart, devoted to ruthlessly pursuing thankfulness, throughout their day, inspired by the small and great, is the foundation to a life well lived. 

Most of us know cultivating a grateful heart is good for us. But do we know just how good? Full confession, for most of my life I've battled worry and fear, which generally led me into the land of doubt. The first thing that I usually found myself doubting was the goodness of God. At that point, gratitude was usually devoid in my heart.

So trust me when I say that this is a choice that I still struggle with in my daily life. But by the grace of God I'm getting more consistent with choosing gratitude over fear when life throws me a curveball.

Having said that, here are three reasons I've discovered why I should embrace the choice of being grateful:

Walking Across Dry Land

We recently received a well-needed respite from our drought like conditions this summer. After a full day of steady rainfall, large parts of our lawn turned into a mud pile, as evidenced after our daughter's dog returned from doing his business. And I know this may sound weird, but everytime I walk through mud, or have to clean mud from my shoes or boots, I'm reminded of this story from the book of Exodus.

The people of Israel, God's chosen people, are fleeing their former captors in Egypt, and are complaining to their leader, Moses, about their dire situation. Which is sort of crazy because in Exodus, Chapter 14, God had instructed Moses to tell his people that Pharaoh was going to pursue them, and that God would get glory over Pharaoh and all his armies, so that the Egyptians would learn that He is the LORD.  In other words, God told them this was going to happen! Yet, it's one thing to be told of a situation, it's another altogether to experience it in person. When the Israelites saw the enormous dust cloud on the horizon, generated by all of Pharaoh's chariots, his horsemen, and all his army, they were struck with fear. And they cried out, "Have you taken us away from Egypt just to die in the wilderness?" 

Atlanta Braves are Headed Back to the Championship Series!

The Atlanta Braves are headed back to the National League Championship Series for the second straight season, and they go there in dramatic fashion.

The Braves' Freddie Freeman hammered a two-out, first-pitch homer to center field in the bottom of the eighth off Josh Hader, the Milwaukee Brewers' All-Star closer, lifting Atlanta to a 5-4 come-from-behind win on Tuesday, closing out the NL division series in four games.

"I've had a lot of cool moments in my career, but so far I think that's going to top them right there," Freeman said. "But hopefully that's not the last cool one."

Freeman's heroics ended a back-and-forth affair in which the Braves and Brewers combined for nine runs -- the total number of runs they scored together during the first three games of a well-pitched series.

Though Freeman is the face of the Braves franchise, the reigning NL MVP and possibly a future Hall of Famer, his homer off Hader was a stunner.