Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Story of Redemption

Josh Hamilton hit a record 28 Home runs in the first round of last night's Home Run Derby. For those of you out there who are soccer fans, a typical round is 6 - 8 home runs. When he came in after his hitting, the first thing he did was thank God. Josh's story is one of redemption. He went from top prospect to drug addict to broke (going through over 3 million dollars in the process). It was his experience with God that turned him around. As one of the announcers said last night "It’s a lousy night to be an atheist". An older story about Josh's conversion can be found here (he's now with the Texas Rangers)

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/12775

Almost as amazing is that the man pitching to him is his 71 year old friend

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D91RVLA80.html

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Sadly, you don't seem to understand anything about theologies (or lack of theology) which differs from your own.

As an atheist myself, and an ex-professional ball player, I was in awe of what Josh has done with his life, and what he can do on the field. An I am happy for him that he has found something worth living for so that he can share his remarkable talents.

However, it was in no way, shape, or form a bad night to be an athiest. Certainly not because a ex-drug using born-again Christian went on a tear and hit a shocking quantity of absurdly long homeruns.

If it would have been an Atheist hitting bombs, would that have been a bad night to be Christian? Would it have rendered the Christian belief system worthless? I'm pretty sure that in your eyes, it would have made zero impact.

And such was the theological value of the HR derby on the mind of an atheist. Incredible performance? Yes. Inspirational? Absolutely. But did it make me question my own beliefs and rational constructs? Get real.