In 1964, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees broke Babe Ruth's 34-year-old single season home run record. Ruth had amassed 60 home runs in a season with only 154 games, compared to Maris' 61 over 162 games. The then, Baseball commissioner Ford Frick announced that Maris' accomplishment would be recorded in the record books with an explanation (often referred to as "an asterisk" in the retelling.) Though no official record book existed at the time, the stigma of 61* home runs remained with Roger Maris for years.
Since then, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds have all surpassed Maris' home run record for a single season, but with the shadow of the "steroid era" there is conversation that their records as well as others should be marked by an asterisk.* Some have said they don't deserve to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The recent admission of performance enhancement drug use by Alex Rodriquez, considered by many as the best player in baseball today could mean that his career could forever be marked by an asterisk.*
Imagine everything that you ever did being shadowed by an *. It doesn't matter what you accomplished nor its significance in historical perspective. It is all subject to skepticism due to the asterisk.* That's Baseball, but what about our relationship with God. Imagine if because our sin, God placed an asterisk* by our name because of a sin that we committed. We could have given to help the poor,:or never missed church a day in our life; or we could have preached to the masses about Christ, but because we had sinned there is an asterisk by our name. A reminder to all that regardless of what this person has accomplished, he is still a sinner.
God is very clear about the subject of asterisks. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us of all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9 In Isaiah 23:25, God says "I, even I am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more."
Be glad as a follower of Christ, that when you trust him as Savior and Lord that he blots out all of our sin and remembers them against us no more. It is forgiven and forgotten. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Only by his grace and forgiveness, we are free of the stigma of an asterisk.*
