Looking through the eyes of a Christian, I find it to be more and more difficult these days to find athletes with character, people with “real life” struggles and mistakes who can handle them responsibly. Nowadays to find a male or female athlete whom we can call a role model seems to be nearly impossible because of the overrun of secularism we find in all of the pro and collegiate-level sports.
To say that it is impossible would be a lie. Tim Tebow may come to many people’s minds along with Derek Fisher, Kurt Warner or Curt Schilling, all of whom are highly regarded people in pro athletics. Something that holds all these men together, though, is that all have pronounced their faith through their wins and losses.
This is especially true for an “athlete of faith” who made recent headlines. Josh Hamilton, the Texas Ranger outfielder and MVP, is a pronounced man of faith. He also is a man who has faced his share of struggles in the past. Hamilton has admitted to having an alcohol and drug addiction in previous years and the reason he has been brought to the public’s attention is that he has been through a relapse.
In a Dallas restaurant he said he went through a “weak moment” and had about three or four drinks. He then went to another restaurant across the street with his buddy and grabbed some more, and then later returned to the first restaurant for a couple more. He admitted his mistake to the Rangers and also to Major League Baseball and underwent two drug tests, which came back negative.
The powerful spin on this story, though, is his press conference after the incident happened. Hamilton said, “It was wrong. I was in the situation where I needed to be responsible and I was not. I cannot take a break from this recovery. My recovery is Christ and is an everyday process.”
Was Josh Hamilton’s foul-up a terminal view into what Josh really is? Or was it a peek into the life of an athlete today and how that athlete can handle his mess-up in a responsible manner?
People such as myself see Hamilton’s mistake as hope. Hope in the fact that though we, as humans, will always mess up, how we handle it can bring others closer to our Savior. So for messing up, Josh, I say thank you.
