After finishing a four-game series in Chicago on Saturday night, I left the ballpark around 11pm only to wake up at 3:30am the following morning to catch a flight to Orlando.
With only a few hours of sleep, I sit on a dark plane at dawn surrounded by my teammates. It’s in this quiet place that The Lord meets me.
I open up my Bible to Hebrews 11, & verse 1 jumps out at me.
Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things unseen.”
The words assurance & conviction seem to leap off of the page & straight into my heart:
Assurance is being sure of something without doubt.
Conviction is being so certain of something that it completely alters the way you live.
I’ll be the first to admit that being convicted of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is not easy when you only focus on what is seen. A life following Christ takes faith.
And I confess that I don’t always see the good in every situation and circumstance that comes my way. Whether it’s something small like my last error on the field or something much bigger like my mom’s cancer, we are so quick to question God and His goodness in our lives.
Being able to trust God through trials & times of uncertainties takes the kind of faith that is being sure of our hope and promise in Jesus Christ and being certain in our God who, though we can’t physically see, has a perfect plan for our lives.
My challenge for us today is that while we may not be able to see God, we can most certainly feel His presence.
I wish words could explain the joy I had this morning on the flight. As worship music played loudly through my headphones, I could not even contain my hands raised to Praise my God because of His surrounding presence that filled me! It’s a good thing everyone else was sleeping… I’m sure on the outside I must have looked strange!
My point is this: God is not only beside us, in front of us, and behind us. HE IS INSIDE OF US. When you accept Jesus Christ into your heart and surrender your life to Him, you inherit the gift of the Holy Spirit that not only seals your place in heaven and your salvation, but also paves the way for an open, eternal relationship with our Heavenly Father.
The person of the Holy Spirit is ALIVE and at work INSIDE of me.
The power of Jesus who overcame the power of death is INSIDE of me.
Does this not change everything?
Romans 8:28 says, “We are more than conquerors through Him who gives us strength.”
We are more than conquerors, because Jesus was victorious.
In times of adversity, we must trust the unseen. The power of Jesus is strong enough to overcome even the toughest of trails, and still strong enough to overcome the littlest of them.
He is alive and at work in us. If you struggle with the unseen, only ask God to reveal His presence to you. I promise that He will. For God rewards those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6) Have faith that He is a Faithful God who follows through with His promises. Let His peace be present in you.
Jesus says in John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you might have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.”
Jesus has overcome. Now we too are conquerors.
1 John 5:4-5 says, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world–OUR FAITH. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who BELIEVES that Jesus is the Son of God?”
That, my friends, is truth. Our faith in Jesus brings us to victory. Victory far greater than any Championship Title.
Competing for His Glory 
Rock Chalk, Maggie! Met you after the Cubs game tonight. Had to look up the rock star Jayhawk the Bandits had playing in left field. And, go figure, God led me to a young lady after His heart. Awesome! Love your writing. It’s spot on. And was an encouragement reading it here. Your linguistic skills are probably only topped by your batting. Batting will fade, but the glory to be revealed in you will not. Keep up the good writing (and feeding on that faith). .
As you will see from our company website, I work for a company prolific in the professional sports industry. We build the technology systems. Those of us behind you included guys from the CBC in Canada who run the mobile units covering “Hockey Night in Canada” and other sports. Diversified is a design/build systems integration firm. One of the verticals we serve is replay control rooms for professional teams. We just finished NBC Sports in Stamford, CT and the Laker and Dodgers Channels for Time Warner in LA. We also just finished the Pac-12 Network in San Fran. We are in town for a conference for the mobile production units that service the broadcast community and thought we’d take in a Cubs game cuz the Bandits weren’t playing. 😉
I tell you this as I had a thought (being an old ex-player and coach)— When the career of playing ends-and it always does-the next chapter will come. You have Kevin (and will make a great family with a handsome guy like that!) and you have your God-given writing ability. IF I can ever be of assistance in your career, please let me know. “I know a guy who knows a guy” in the industry. Your journalistic talents will find a home.
My prayer for you is you will keep walking firmly with the Lord and Kevin. As I meet professional athletes as yourself, I begin a journey of following their careers. It’s not really stalking because most of them are male and I’m married! But I consider it an honor to have met you and applaud all the effort and trials and obstacles God has served to bring you through to get to this point in your career. It’s never easy. Only you and God know the effort, sacrifices and hurdles in getting here (Chicago). The platform is, as you’ve stated, for His glory. You honor Him with it. And he will honor you.
Now, until that day, keep rocking. And explain to me how you get that bat around on a 65+mph fastball from 43 feet sometime.
Kindly,
Brad