This is the most exciting time of the year. As a baseball player, you play the whole season for the chance to win the World Series. You can’t do that unless you finish strong—and that’s what we’re trying to do.

We’re in such a tight race to the end at this point that the stress levels can get unreal if you let them. Being on the road a lot—away for 11 days, home for 7, and then away for another 11 days—can only add to this stress. You have to learn how to slow it down and breathe.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I fully believe in the theory that you should change some stuff up. On a personal level, this has not been the most successful pitching season for my career but my body is telling me that it’s feeling ready. When breaks don’t go your way, you have to change things up.

I try not to be superstitious, but this is baseball. The simple acts of pulling your pants up higher, putting on different socks, wearing your jersey a different way, or shaving your beard off can change your mojo and add the positive vibe to your psyche that you need. My teammates Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday joke that I will do anything short of ruining my salvation to get a win. And they’re right. Whatever it takes, as long as it’s legal, I will do it.

We have some young players on the team now who are ridiculously talented. I’m having fun talking through the art of pitching with them. A lot of work will be required of them if they want to stay at the top. It’s always been said that it’s harder to stay in the Big Leagues than it is to get there. As I work with these younger players, I’ve been having a lot of fun remembering my early years and the lessons that I’ve been taught. Now that I’m the older guy, I get to pass those same lessons along while adding my own twist on things, with my own stories to stand behind.

As I get older, I find myself looking back more. When I’m talking with the younger guys I remember things that I did or lessons that I learned that I wish I had avoided. I try to pass those lessons along so that they don’t have to go through the same thing.

While I know that I have some experience and lessons that I can share with these younger pitchers, I’m also learning a lot from them. Being around guys that consistently pitch 100 miles per hour brings out my competitiveness more. I don’t want to be the old guy—I am, but I’m fighting it. I want to stay young and these guys are helping me do that.

In the game of baseball, I consistently look for ways to change things up to keep myself fresh and conditioned. In the same way, I aim to keep my relationship with Jesus Christ exciting, renewed, and personal. I know that I can easily fall into a routine, and then that routine becomes impersonal. I never want to let my love for Christ grow stale, so I change things up.

I don’t want to just say the same prayers each day. Does God really want me to come to Him saying, “Thou Art, Thou Finest, God amongst the heavens”? If that’s not the way that I speak, should I really speak that way to the Lord? God wants us to be real with Him, to do life with Him.

A few days ago my 7-year-old daughter, Morgan, was saying a prayer out loud for a group of us. In the middle of the prayer, she joked with God a bit. It was kind of hilarious, but at the same time I was thinking, “This is God, you have to show reverence.” But then I imagined God laughing along with Morgan and shaking His head at me saying, “Your daughter’s praying to Me and having fun with it. Let us have fun.”

There’s a delicate balance there for me. He is the King of Kings, He’s the One who tells you to take your shoes off by the burning bush because you’re on holy ground, but He’s also the guy who wants us to present our arguments to Him, to laugh with Him and cry with Him.

To keep things exciting and fresh, I know I need to be constantly changing my routine and challenging my perspective so that I can be the best player, teammate, dad, husband, and Christ-follower that I can be.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” —1 John 5:14

—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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