Part One - Softball becomes a ministry

I spent a majority of my teenage years on a softball diamond. My parents had signed me up for every sport imaginable, and I didn’t enjoy any of them, except softball.

My first year on a travel team, we were playing in a tournament in Sioux Falls, SD. We were playing a team from California and they were really good. We were going to be run ruled, so the coach put me in to pitch the final few innings. I didn’t see any point in trying, because the game was already over in my mind.

Following our loss, my dad pulled into a gas station and asked me if I had given up on the mound that day. I responded with, “We were so far behind. What’s the point?” He lovingly reminded me that he gave up his golf trips to take me to these tournaments, but more importantly, as a Christ-follower I represented Christ every time I stepped on the field. My eyes burned with tears, because I knew he was right.

That day softball was no longer a sport I played, but rather it was a ministry. I stepped onto the field to bring God glory through my effort, not the results. My senior year of high school I received a scholarship to play softball at a DII university in Minnesota.

Read Part 2 tomorrow and see how God used trials to strengthen my faith.