I am the first to admit that I break out in a cold sweat when I know that the Indians biggest game could ride on the shoulder of one Mr. Paul Byrd. I found this article today about “Birdie” and his 180. Enjoy -
“I thought he was in a cult. I’m like, ‘This guy is way too into it. Like, what’s wrong here? This guy is psycho.’ But he challenged me to read the Bible,” Paul says.
“So I started to read the Bible, and it was like somebody was pursuing me. I couldn’t get God and Jesus off my heart, and I found out the Gospel really is true,” Paul remembers.The next three years, Paul wrestled with his faith. In 1991, he pitched Louisiana State to the college world series. But the victory didn’t satisfy him.
“Everybody was jumping around on the pile and things like that. I had a lot going on in my heart and I’m thinking, ‘We’ve just done what we’ve trained for my whole college career. What now? Is it this great? What now?’ “
Paul says God used the championship as a wake-up call. It was then he surrendered it all to God.
“It was a time when God used that in my life to say, ‘What’s important? What am I going to stand for?’ Five minutes before I die, am I going to care about the fact that I won the college world series or am I going to be worried about where I’m going?”
Paul is passionate about a number of things, and obviously baseball is just one of those. But ask him, and he’ll tell you about his true passion…
“I’ll be sitting in the outfield, and a guy will come over and start talking and … it will be the last guy on the team I think is interested. And it’s a guy that wants to know about the Gospel. He might be turned off with the church or turned off with religion, but he sees something different in relationship, and he wants to know about that. It’s very powerful for me when I see people’s hearts turn to God. Man, it fires me up like nothing else,” he says.
See the entire article on the 700 Club site – HERE
Filed under: Aaron Conrad | Tagged: AC180, Cleveland Indians, Complete 180, MLB, Paul Byrd, Religion, salvation
its cool to see a “success” used as a wake up call.
Great story. You can feel his heart when he said, “Man, it fires me up like nothing else,” …May we all have that kind of passion for the Lord!
Tap that vein , Paul.
FEEL THE BURN!
That is a great story, and what a good testimony. I am sorry to see he is garnering “other” headlines in the pages today. Satan can bring things up to challenge our testimony so fast. We should pray for him and be careful for our own. Thanks for posting it. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/specials/playoffs/2007/10/21/byrd.hgh.ap/index.html
Eddie –
It’s great having you around here. I gotta admit that when I read that headline this morning, I had to do a double take. Pitchers and steroids just doesn’t make sense to me, but I guess it’s not out of the question. I agree with you 100% on your point. I don’t think the news this morning negates what Paul Byrd said, it just points out that we still struggle and we still fail. I’m just glad my failures (pre or post 180) aren’t out on SI or ESPN for the world to see.
We don’t know, and maybe never will the entire story behind this allegation. I have a feeling when they release the full list of people from the investigation after the World Series, it will read like a who’s who of baseball. As sad as that is. The timing of the headline and this article/post were certainly unfortunate though…
Gotta send our prayers after hearing him admit to the human growth hormone. Sad he had to take this, with doctor’s supervision, for a medical purpose. Maybe it will give him more room to share Christ with others?
He talked about it during pregame last night. He was very emphatic about the fact that it is prescribed, and has been since he was with the Braves. He also mentioned the importance to him in his testimony. He didn’t actually word it that way, but I picked up on it right away. this guy’s got Christ all over him. It’s no big deal.