Faith In The Game
STORIES BY ATHLETES OF FAITH
Faith in the Game is a blog containing submissions by athletes of faith. Each of them was asked one question: Tell us a story about a time when your faith was most present in your life. Rather than tell us about their faith, we asked them to show us.
These stories are oftentimes uplifting, and at all times profound, raw, honest, introspective and heartfelt. These are not the sort of stories you hear in a press conference. Some of them take place on the field; others, off it. They are presented without agenda or judgment. On many levels, we think you'll find them fascinating, as they pull up the veil on a side of sports that is rarely revealed but very often present.
This blog is moderated by author and father Ben Petrick, a former Colorado Rockies catcher thought to be the only professional athlete to have his career shortened by Parkinson's Disease, along with writer and father Scott Brown. In addition to their professional and family lives, both men are also coaches of youth sports. A selection of the stories they've collected will soon appear in a book, and together they're also working on Ben's autobiography.
If you'd like us to email you when new stories appear on the blog, please send us a note at info@imagine-books.net.
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Going It Alone
From the New York Times, on American distance runner Ryan Hall, who decided to go without a coach and put his training in the hands of a higher power:
Hall, who will turn 29 next week, said he came to his decision a year ago when he was the great hope for an American winner in Chicago, as he is this year. He had come in fourth in Boston, with a time of 2:08:41. But on Sept. 29, 2010, less than two weeks before the race on Oct. 10, he announced that he was overtrained, too tired to race, and withdrew.
“I was just way overfried and overcooked,” he said in a telephone interview.
He began to consider whether he really wanted to be coached and run with a group — he had been running with the Mammoth Track Club, where he was coached by Terrence Mahon.
“The thing that was disappointing, even though I was training really hard, I wasn’t seeing any improvement,” Hall said.
And he felt he was not close enough to God, he said. As a Christian, he decided he would, in effect, let God be his coach.
“I really wanted that,” Hall said. “To wake up every morning, to get down on my knees and say: ‘God, I need your help. I don’t know what to do.’ ” He reasoned that even if his running got worse, he would gain something because he would be closer to God.
What do you think of Hall’s decision?
To participate in the discussion, please head over to our Facebook page.
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This video is a little old, but just came to our attention. A defining moment in South Africa’s history wasn’t an uprising or a coups. It was the formation of a soccer league by political prisoners during apartheid. These same men who lost their freedom but found hope in a game they loved, would go on to govern the new South Africa. It’s a beautiful demonstration of what sports reveals about the human spirit.
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The Jackson 7: A Week’s Worth of Word
We’re excited to welcome respected broadcaster and new Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson as a contributor to Faith in the Game. An ordained minister, Jackson and his wife, Desiree, founded True Love Worship Center in Southern California.
Every week, Jackson will provide some “assigned reading” for the week, along with his thoughts. You can follow him on Twitter at @JacksonMark13.
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Day 1
Romans 8:8: “…and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Those who are living the life of the flesh cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him. Look to please God.
Day 2
James 1:8: “…being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways”
A double-minded man is unstable in ALL his ways. Get your mind right!
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“Crash,” by Ben Petrick
Ben Petrick is co-editor of Faith In The Game. A former Major Leaguer with the Colorado Rockies and Detroit Tigers, Ben has Parkinson’s disease and recently underwent an aggressive surgery called Deep Brain Stimulation to alleviate his symptoms. A television news story on Ben’s amazing recovery can be found here. Ben chronicles his progress, along with stories of faith, family and baseball, in this blog.
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Like many sports fans, as a kid, I grew up idolizing players and praying that one day I could be a professional athlete. I had my idols: Don Mattingly, Roger Craig and Clyde Drexler — all men of character, though not men of outward faith.
Ironically, if they had been, I might have been less apt to follow them.
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You can’t say, “I can’t.” You can say, “I’m having trouble, but I’m not done yet.” — “The Tree of Life”
“Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, for Him.” — Psalm 27:14 -
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“All of us know when we were born, but only a few of us know why.” — David Feherty, speaking of Tom Watson, who he says helped pull him from his alcoholic despair
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens.” — Ecclesiastes 3:1 -
“Be Who You Are and Say What You Feel Because Those Who Mind Don’t Matter and Those Who Matter Don’t Mind.” — Dr. Seuss
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” — Jeremiah 13:23 -
Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle is a great friend to Faith In The Game, providing us with thoughts to pass on to our readers. They’ll be shared periodically on this blog. Here is today’s —- it’s a bit of a quick one:
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” — Abraham Lincoln
Make a difference today.
Love,
Clint
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“Tough Enough,” by Matt Holliday
Matt Holliday, 31, is an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. A member of the 2011 National League All-Star Team, Holliday is batting .324 with 14 homers and 49 RBI despite dealing with injuries. Drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the seventh round in 1998, he elected to sign rather than attend Oklahoma State, where he would have split time playing baseball for his father, Tom, as well as quarterback for the football team.
Holliday is a five-time All-Star and Silver Slugger winner. He was the runner-up in the National League MVP voting for the 2007 Major League Baseball season.[3] He won the 2007 National League Championship Series MVP as he helped guide the Rockies to their first-ever National League pennant and World Series appearance.
Holliday and his wife, Leslee, have two sons, Jackson (born December 4, 2003) and Ethan (born February 23, 2007), and a daughter, Gracyn (born November 7, 2009).
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My dad is a baseball man. When I was younger, he’d tell me about guys he’d been around in the 1980s, and how once they became men of faith, they got soft. They weren’t the players they used to be.
I laugh at this now. Hey, Jesus turned over a few tables in his day. He knocked over the post-game spread. He wasn’t the soft Jesus you see on a stained-glass window. He had his moments. He died on a cross, for goodness sake. This was a tough dude.
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“Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.” —
Mike Singletary
Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. — Ephesians 5:19 -
Comments today from Josh Hamilton in the wake of the tragedy in Arlington:
To read more, please click here.“It helps me handle life,” Hamilton said, “and this is life, this tragedy. There’s things that happen that you have no control over and you don’t understand them and you will never understand them until you stand in front of your maker.”
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Young in Heart, By Stephanie Cox
Stephanie Cox, 25, is one of the top young defenders in the world, and a member of the United States women’s national soccer team that moved past Brazil Sunday to reach the World Cup semifinals.
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I became a Christian at the ripe young age of four. As my mom tells the story, after watching a Christian kids’ TV show, I asked my mom if I was going to heaven. She told me how Jesus came to save us and to bring us to God. I asked Jesus into my heart and ever since then I have been a Christian.
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“Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead.” — Roger Bannister, after becoming the first person to break the four-minute mile in 1952
Work hard and become a leader; be lazy and never succeed. — Proverbs 12:24 -
Sometimes we like to post things that are not literally about faith or sports, but still have meaning about our essential selves. When he was given a serious diagnosis, Bruce Feiler formed a “council of dads,” each of whom represented a pillar in his life, so they might be able to carry on his teachings to his twin daughters. Please watch this and ask yourself, “Have I lived my life so that its meaning will be clear? And have I allowed myself to be known by others?”
You can read more about “The Council of Dads” by clicking here.
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The Proving Ground, by Ben Petrick
Ben Petrick is co-editor of Faith In The Game. A former Major Leaguer with the Colorado Rockies and Detroit Tigers, Ben has Parkinson’s disease and recently underwent an aggressive surgery called Deep Brain Stimulation to alleviate his symptoms. A television news story on Ben’s amazing recovery can be found here. Ben chronicles his progress, along with stories of faith, family and baseball, in this blog.
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Challenges occur in life on a daily basis; some big, some small. I have found that over the past couple of years as my relationship with Christ has deepened, these adversities just don’t have the hold on me that they once did.
If you read in James 1:2-4 the Bible says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
