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Finding Faith at the Field of Dreams

Finding Faith at the Field of Dreams

Last updated on: August 11, 2026 at 9:26 am by Jim Meisner Jr.

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Finding Faith at the Field of Dreams 2026-08-11T09:26:53-04:00 Jim Meisner Jr.

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Finding Faith at the Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams movie site

“If you build it, he will come,” a mysterious voice says to Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella, who envisions a baseball diamond appearing in his corn field.

The vision quickly gives away to plowing and seeding. Soon ghosts of legendary ball players arrive, led by “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and other players banned after the 1919 White Sox scandal.

The 1989 movie, based on W. P. Kinsella’s novel Shoeless Joe, is a magical story about family, dreams, and baseball.

Major League Baseball returns to Dyersville, Iowa, Aug. 13, with the home team Minnesota Twins facing the Philadelphia Phillies. Netflix coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT.

A new stadium will host the professionals, while the movie site remains accessible for free. (People happily hand over money to tour the house. Because as Terrance Mann says in the movie, “They’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it. For it is money they have and peace they lack.”)

Mann, replacing J.D. Salinger in the novel, along with Ray, his wife Annie and their daughter, can see the baseball players. But strangers can’t see the men on the field.

From the perspective of nonbelievers, Ray and his family sit beside an empty field, looking at nothing.

But to those who can see, watching the old time players play is a wondrous and Divine gift.

That’s what faith is.

For nonbelievers, for those without faith, church looks like nonsense and people sitting around praying to a non-existent God.

But some of us can see the players. We can feel the living God. We see God working and moving in our lives.

Hundreds of millions of people around the world, for thousands and thousands of years, have all been in contact with the same God. We can all see the baseball players. Just because some can’t see them, doesn’t mean the players aren’t there.

It’s important to recognize that some people THINK they worship the Creator but they aren’t watching a living, unique baseball game on a Divine field — their faith is little more than a scratched and damaged reproduction from the past, or a decades-old snapshot, capturing a single moment.

They worship a god created in their own image because they can’t see the Creator in all of creation.

But you can.

Ignore everything you’ve learned and everything that you thought was true; forget the reasons you don’t believe, or the things that caused you to leave church or lose faith; and open your heart and mind, and listen for God. Go the distance, be receptive, and God can become known to you.

God. Not coincidence, or chance or luck, but the Creator of the world can connect with you. If you stop thinking long enough to listen for the voice of God, you may see the ballplayers.

It’s that simple.

Different players on different fields in different places at different times, but it’s always the same game. Just as it’s the same Creator.

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball,” Terrance Mann said.

“America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.

“This field, this game — it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.”

Pastor Jim Meisner, Jr. is the author of the novel Faith, Hope, and Baseball,** available on Amazon, or follow this link to order an autographed copy. He created and manages the Facebook page Faith on the Fringe.

For other articles by Jim, visit:

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Faith on the Fringe Jim Meisner Jr

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