Time to Refuel – Adam Wainwright

July 25, 2016

If you’re not going to be on the All-Star Team, those four days off are so welcome. Sometimes they are particularly important, and this year, they were just what I needed.

 

Whether you make the All-Star Team or not, everyone in the League looks forward to the break. It’s about a time of healing and rejuvenation—a time to relax with your family and/or teammates. That time of healing is one of the most important parts of the season. This year for me, it was a time to spend solely with my family. We barely left the house, enjoying the pool, the grill, and each other’s much-needed company.

 

This break has provided me a ton of motivation. I ended the last part of the first half of the season pretty strong, ending a few good starts in a row where I knew I was making some good adjustments. Even though I’m still not quite where I would like to be in regards to my stats, I’m using this break as a way to almost start over and get back into the flow of things for the second half of this season. I know that my body’s healthy and strong now because of the break—I’m rested and I’m ready. I think our whole team is ready and prepared to do some really special things on the field.

 

Often times, it’s during the trials we face when we’re really challenged to be the best versions of ourselves we can be. I’ve gotten to the point now where I’m not sure that I’d know how to act if I wasn’t going through some sort of challenge. I’ve been a starting pitcher in the Big Leagues for over ten years now, and it takes its toll on you. Any Big League player who has lasted a long time and done the grind of facing the ball every day will tell you that. As a player at our level, if you are going to have success you have to be able to overcome. You have to be able to persevere. If your body is not just right, you have to be able to find a way to get the job done no matter what.

 

This is a big part of playing in the Big Leagues. The guys who feel like they have to be 100% to play baseball will almost never play baseball. You have to learn how to play whether you’re hurt or not. Over time, you’ll understand more and get better at this; though at first it’s a grind, you eventually learn how to mentally overcome your physical boundaries. This mentality is what separates the best of the best.

 

The same concept is true in our walk of faith. When we find ourselves in a dry spell in our relationship with Jesus Christ, we need to persevere and train ourselves to get back into the swing of things.

 

“I seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your commands. I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.” —Psalm 119:10-11

 

Earlier this season, I was going through a dry spell in my own faith. Without realizing it, I had gone eleven days without opening my Bible. But God seems to always grab my attention and draw me back to Him even when I don’t notice that I’m drifting. Someone will come up and ask me about the meaning behind a certain part of Scripture or ask me to read a certain passage with them that they are struggling with and I’ll have to dive into it and that will throw me back in line in my own faith journey. And that’s exactly what happened just a few months ago.

 

A teammate of mine came up to me and asked me about a certain passage in 1 Corinthians and a struggle he was having in regards to his faithfulness to God. This happened to be the exact passage that I was up to in my Bible reading plan—the one I had been neglecting. I was so blown away to see the way that God used what my teammate was going through in order to bring me back to His Word as well as encourage my brother in his walk.

 

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” —Proverbs 27:17

 

—Adam Wainwright

 

Adam Wainwright is a regular contributor to The Increase, providing monthly articles and opinions.

 

Check out Adam’s Increase profile here: http://theincrease.com/author/adamwainwright/   

 

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