For Tampa Bay Rays star Richie Palacios, his identity as a “man of Christ” matters more than being a pro baseball player.
“For me, people would define me as a baseball player, but for me, I’m just a man of Christ,” he told Billy Pinckney in an interview. “I grew up in the church. My dad’s a pastor now, so there are still values in me that are greater. This is just what I do, but this is the vehicle that I can use to affect people in the right way, to show them that there is a God. He’s greater than anything; He’s better than baseball. He’s greater than all that stuff, and I put my faith in Him.”
He shared a few things he does daily to keep his life centered on Christ.
“I pray every day. I read my Bible, and I know that He’s with me, and the Holy Spirit on this earth is with me,” the second baseman declared. “So I’m just amazed to be able to be blessed to be able to play the game that I love and enjoy, but it’s not because of anything I’ve done in my life. It’s because of His mercy.”
“The first thing I do when I wake up is pray and read my Bible. That’s the greatest sacrifice I can make,” he emphasized. “Right when I wake up, I know that, ‘Thank you, God, for giving me another day, giving me another blessing to be able to come out and do this and just be the person that I am.’ That’s what I do. I acknowledge Him first before the game. I acknowledge Him again throughout the whole day. I try to acknowledge Him. That keeps me moving in the spirit and not broken in my spirit.”
Related: For This MLB Player, Baseball Is a ‘Vehicle’ to Share Jesus
In another interview with Jesus Over Baseball, Palacios spoke again about baseball being the “vehicle” he uses to share the gospel.
“For me, it’s just, you know, when I wake up in the morning and pray to God and just know that everything that’s going to go on through this day, that He’s in control, and I’m able to be free with that,” Palacios said.
“So, when I do go 0-4, I don’t become a different person now,” he explained. “I don’t become an angry person. I still have the faith of God within me. I still have the joy of the Lord in me. So, whether I go 0-4 or 4-0, I can still go and say, ‘Thank you, God, for what you’ve done for me, for who you are and the ability to be able to impact the people around me positively, whether I do good or don’t do good.'”
What a powerful reminder that what we do isn’t our identity. Instead, it’s who we are in Christ, and we can use our talents, like Palacios, to point others to Christ.
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