A sports journalist recently asked a very famous baseball player and recovering drug user why he doesn’t watch ESPN, follow any of the critics, or read anything written about him. The athlete answered, “I separate myself from that stuff because it will drive you crazy. The best thing you can do is not read it at all. All that can do is bring resentment and bitterness. You can’t live a productive life having that stuff in you.”
Sounds like the FREEdom process in action, doesn’t? This athlete is a strong believer in Jesus who knows that if he lets the journalist’s negative critiques of his play enter his brain, that line of coke is just waiting for him around the corner. He also knows that he has no control over what others think or say about him.
He does have control over his walk with Christ. He does have control over his choice to “do the good works” God created him to do, which in this one instance is to play baseball. He knows that whatever he does in word or in deed, he’s to do it all “in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
Because of this, the writer noted, “For someone who smiles a lot, the guy really knows how to take the fun of this business.” This athlete smiles because he’s living in freedom, not just from his drugs of choice, but because he’s filtering out the negative responses of others that could cost him his freedom.
Know who you’re playing for…and it’s not to please the critics! You’re a secure of child God who can please Jesus by doing what He asks you to do with and for Him. So play for Him. Let His smile will rub off onto your face!
“S”et Free Nowww