Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Alex Call finds comfort in James 1:2-4 during hard times.
“I just felt like, as I would read the word, I would be encouraged through times of injury, through times of struggle,” Call explained on the “Sports Spectrum” podcast.
The verses read, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Like any of us, Call doesn’t like to go through trials, but he understands it’s part of the refining process.
“That was a big verse for me in James, and it was really impactful because I want to be mature and complete in my faith,” the outfielder, who won the 2025 World Series with the Dodgers, said. “But that verse says that that doesn’t happen unless you go through trials. And I don’t really want to go through trials, but I want to be mature and complete in my faith.”
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“So, when you take it from that perspective, it’s like, ‘Okay, I’m going to take these trials head-on. I’m going to embrace them. I’m going to dive deeper in with Christ. I’m going to go deeper in my relationship, and then I’m going to be more mature and more complete in my faith.’ And so that was kind of how I took all the bumps in the road,” he explained.
The athlete, who made his MLB debut in 2022 with the Cleveland Guardians, takes his platform seriously, using it to point his fans to Christ.
“As I went through high school, as I went through the early years of my life, it was always kind of like, being a Christian is like, ‘Well, I don’t do these things.’ And it wasn’t until, like, I got to college and I got into even professional baseball, where it was, ‘No, actually, it’s so much more than that,’” the World Champion shared on “The Walk” podcast in May. “Like God calls us all to be disciples. Jesus says, ‘Go and make disciples of all nations.’”
“And when I always read that as a kid, I was like, ‘Yeah, that sounds nice, but, like, that sounds like what missionaries do in Africa.’ And, you know, I don’t know if we’re all called to that, but that’s not what Jesus says. Jesus says we’re all called to make disciples,” he continued.
“So it was at that point where I flipped,” Call explained. “If Jesus is calling me and all of us to do that, well, then I want to play my part. I want to do my thing for Christ. I want to live it out in a way that, you know, other people see my faith, and they say they see Jesus.”
Call’s story reminds us to see trials and our God-given platforms as opportunities to grow in faith and point others toward Christ.
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