Why Knowing Jesus Matters in Baseball

Baseball has a way of making everything feel important.

The next at-bat feels important. Your batting average feels important. Making the team feels important. Getting recruited, earning a starting spot, winning a championship, or reaching the next level can start to feel like everything.

I know because I played competitive baseball and during that time, I didn’t know Jesus.

I loved the game. I wanted to perform. I wanted to succeed. Like so many players, a good day at the plate could make me feel like I was on top of the world, while a bad day could leave me frustrated and questioning myself. When so much of your identity is attached to baseball, it becomes easy to let your performance determine your worth.

But baseball was never designed to carry that weight.

Now that I know Jesus and have had the opportunity to disciple baseball players, I see the game completely differently.

I have watched what happens when players begin developing the fruit of the Spirit that Paul describes in Galatians 5:22–23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Think about how powerful those qualities are on a baseball field.

Self-control changes how you respond after a bad call. Patience changes how you handle a slump. Kindness changes how you treat the teammate competing for your position. Faithfulness changes how you work when nobody is watching. Joy allows you to love the game even when things aren't going your way. Peace reminds you that your entire life isn't riding on your next at-bat.

Knowing Jesus doesn't guarantee that you'll become a better baseball player.

It gives you something infinitely greater: a purpose beyond being a baseball player.

The truth is, you can go 4-for-4 with two home runs and still need Jesus.

You can also go 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and know that Jesus loves you exactly the same.

That's something baseball can never offer you.

Baseball's love is often performance-based. Play well, and people cheer your name. Struggle long enough, and eventually someone else gets your spot. Jesus isn't like that. His love isn't determined by your batting average, exit velocity, scholarship offers, statistics, or what level of baseball you reach.

Your greatest accomplishment will never be going 4-for-4.

It won't be playing college baseball.

It won't even be making it to the Major Leagues.

Because eventually, every baseball career ends. There will come a day when you take off the jersey for the final time. The statistics will stop accumulating. Someone else will wear your number. Someone else will take your spot in the lineup.

But eternity doesn't end.

Jesus said in John 3:16 that whoever believes in Him “shall not perish but have eternal life.”

That's why knowing Jesus matters in baseball.

Play hard. Compete. Chase excellence. Work to become the best player you can possibly become. There is nothing wrong with wanting to go 4-for-4.

Just remember that going 4-for-4 can never give you what Jesus can.

Baseball is temporary. Jesus is eternal.

And whether you go 4-for-4 or 0-for-4 tomorrow, Jesus still loves you.