“Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.” — 1 Timothy 1:13
Day One
Baseball is back! For nearly 150 years, teams have collected on grassy fields each spring to begin a season of hits, runs, victories and defeats. Opening Day reminds us of players of the past, and gives us hope for the future. Every team starts new and anything could happen this season.
For the follower of Jesus, we have an opening day too. The day we first stepped up and opened our hearts to receive Him. Can you remember the excitement? Anything was possible!
Perhaps no one had quite the “opening day” like the Apostle Paul. Acts 9 describes how he was on a mission to destroy the Church of Christ in Damascus. He suddenly saw a light brighter than stadium lights at any ballpark. The power of it knocked him to the ground. Jesus revealed Himself to Paul by asking, “Why do you persecute Me?”
I’m sure a million things were running through Paul’s mind, but maybe nothing bigger than this: “Who is this and what is he going to do to me?” Paul reflected on that moment in his letter to Timothy. His mind went back to the mercy. He deserved punishment. He was given grace.
Reflect back on your first day with Jesus. Were you a blasphemer, speaking against God? Were you a persecutor, pushing against the people of God? Were you violent, raging physically against everyone else? How were you acting in ignorance and unbelief? Praise God Jesus showed you mercy!
How far have you come since that first day? Have you been growing closer to Him, or do you need some more “spring training?” Do you still have that excitement and think anything is possible? Allow baseball’s start to remind you that God’s mercy is “new every morning” (Lamentations 3:23). Reflect how your season can be renewed right now.
Maybe you’ve never experienced that “opening day” with Jesus. Maybe you’ve never surrender and asked Him to forgive you from the ways you’ve been against Him. Maybe you’ve never asked to follow Him. Today could be your Day One. Just step up to the plate and ask Him. Jesus’s mercy is just a prayer away. Your new season can begin.
— Jeff Chaves
If you would like to submit a reader devotional, please email all submissions to jason@sportsspectrum.com.
Jordan Stolz of the U.S. celebrates with his coach Bob Corby at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
“Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.” — Deuteronomy 32:7
Bob Corby thought he was done with speed skating. After competing for years himself and then coaching the sport for a stint, he had become a physiotherapist with his own practice and hung up the skates in the 1990s. But 20 years later, he received an unexpected phone call from a 14-year-old young man named Jordan Stolz with a request for him to return to coaching as his personal instructor. Corby was now in his 70s, so this request was no small consideration.
But the fact that this kid had done his research, knew Corby had been one of the best to ever do it, and was so passionate about getting to work, made the answer a pretty quick one. Corby said yes, and the rest has literally been history.
Stolz’s talent coupled with an incredible work ethic led him to three Olympic medals at the Milan Olympics, two of them gold. Corby says coaching the young man has been a dream, sometimes even leaving him in amazement at what Stolz is accomplishing. And the 22-year-old is not even close to being done yet!
I find this story extremely touching because, so often, generations ignore one another and find it hard to connect. The older ones can easily dismiss and stereotype the young ones with a typical “kids these days” remark, failing to see the value the youth of today bring to the table.
In the same way, young people can categorize the elderly and disregard the depth of wisdom they can offer — the perspective of having lived many years on this planet and gained much experience along the way. Things a young person is living through for the first time are already part of the story for an elder, giving them a unique ability to speak into that young person’s life.
Stolz saw the value in Corby’s experience as a former skater and coach, and refused to believe that his “outdated” style was irrelevant to the sport today. As a result, other skaters are now looking into some of Stolz’s “old school” methods and realizing the value of them.
God takes the concept of generations seriously. From His warning that sins in a family will be visited to the third and fourth generations (Exodus 34:7), to His command to “stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly” (Leviticus 19:32a), God wants to involve all of the generations in His plan.
His Kingdom is made up of all ages and experiences, and this is why it matters so much that we encourage our churches, teams, businesses, friendships and families to be built around the shared knowledge and wisdom of varying ages and experiences. The youth must see the importance of their elders and the elders must see the value of the youth. Together, this combination builds a force for good that is reflective of the community God has in mind.
So today, maybe call up your grandparent or an elderly friend. Or, if you’re older yourself, go have a young person teach you something new today. We all need each other and can learn from one another, if only we choose to.
Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton on the court after an injury during Game 7 of the NBA Finals, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” — Lamentations 3:21-23
Any athlete has experienced a stinging defeat. Maybe it was an important playoff game or a loss to a rival team. Maybe you were right there, close to a championship win, but suffered a heartbreaking defeat. Maybe it was an injury that cut a season or a career short. Maybe you got cut from a team.
Whatever it is, anyone who’s been involved in athletics as a player or coach has experienced disappointments. And no matter how many you endure, it never really seems to get any easier. It’s why you see grown adults cry after losing games in college or professional sports. You put a lot of effort and hope into something, and when it doesn’t end up how you envisioned, it’s natural to experience sadness and disappointment.
What I love about sports are the life lessons you learn along the way. You learn how to accept tough feedback and coaching, which is a crucial skill in school, the workplace and just in life. You learn how to work with others and be a good teammate, sometimes having to take a backseat and let someone else lead. You learn how to be humble and gracious in victory, and you learn how to navigate disappointments. All of these are emotions we experience throughout our lives.
As Christians, we have hope in the midst of our disappointments, and that hope is in Christ. Lamentations 3:21-23 says, “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Loss stings. Sometimes it lingers. But as Christians, we know loss never gets the final word.
In that passage above, the author Jeremiah doesn’t pretend everything is fine. The Book of Lamentations is filled with grief over the destruction of Jerusalem. He knows what it feels like to experience devastating loss. Yet in the middle of that grief, he makes a conscious decision to remember God’s faithfulness.
Imagine how Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers must have felt when he went down in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals with a torn Achilles. They were that close to capping a miraculous run with an NBA championship, just for it to end like that.
And disappointment and loss can consume us if we let them. We replay the game and try to do mental gymnastics to change reality and think, “If just this thing would’ve happened, we could’ve won.” But eventually, we have to look beyond what happened and remember who God is.
That doesn’t mean pretending the loss or disappointment doesn’t hurt. Faith doesn’t require us to ignore those emotions or rush through the grief. Jeremiah gives us permission to lament, and we know God is present with us in our sadness. Jeremiah shows us that we can bring those emotions honestly to God while still holding onto hope.
As Christians, we know our hope isn’t ultimately in winning or making the team or staying healthy. Those are great things, but they’re temporary. Our hope is found in Christ, whose faithfulness doesn’t change with the scoreboard.
Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Clay Holmes, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Clay Holmes got a taste of the World Series experience in 2024 with the New York Yankees, but he and his team came up short of winning the whole thing.
He’s now with the Chicago Cubs, where both he and the team’s front office hope his addition to the starting rotation could mean a deep run in October.
The Cubs acquired Holmes from the New York Mets at the MLB trade deadline last month, and in his seven starts with Chicago he has a 2-3 record and a 3.46 ERA. Between the two teams, he’s 6-7 on the year — but with a 2.85 ERA and a 2.4 wins above replacement rating, which is the highest of his career.
“It’s been a very easy transition for me,” Holmes told the Chicago Sun-Times last week. “Everything’s about winning. You’re in that competitive environment, and you get to focus on and do the things that you want to do. It makes showing up to work a lot of fun every day.”
The 33-year-old made his major-league debut in 2018 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and he spent the beginning part of his career as a reliever, including when he was traded to the Yankees in 2021. New York used him as a high-leverage reliever and closer, logging 20 saves and earning his first All-Star Game selection in 2022. He racked up 24 saves in 2023, then 30 in 2024, when he earned his second All-Star Game selection.
He then moved across town to the Mets ahead of the 2025 season and was converted to a starting pitcher. In his first year being stretched out, he logged a 12-8 record with a 3.53 ERA over a career-high 165.2 innings pitched. He has continued to flourish in his second year as a starter.
The Cubs are clinging to a 1.5-game lead in the National League wild-card race. Should they reach the postseason, they”ll have a number of options for starting pitchers, including Kevin Gausman, Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga and David Peterson, in addition to Holmes. That means the Cubs could employ Holmes out of the bullpen. He’s ready either way.
“When the lights get brighter and the games become more meaningful, the rest of everything else kind of drowns out. From my experience, that’s what you crave,” Holmes told reporters last week. “It’s a drug. It’s all you want is just to care about this one game in front of you, and that’s all that matters.”
His mindset has been formed by a mixture of his upbringing, his path to the major leagues and his faith in God. He’s the son of a preacher, which means — fair or not — he grew up under perceived heightened pressure and expectations to live a certain way. But that helped prepare him for the pressure of playing professional baseball.
He was drafted out of high school, so he knew it would take a while to make it to the majors. But Tommy John surgery delayed that process by another year or two, leading him to spend about seven years in the minors before getting the big-league call-up.
But that experience tested his faith and perseverance, he said.
“It’s a lot of bus rides. A lot of patience,” he said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in 2023. “But I kind of knew what I was signing up for. I knew that being in high school I was a pretty raw talent, so there’s going to be some refining that needs to take place. It was maybe longer than I wished, but I look back on a lot of those years and I met a lot of great people.
“You go through things with some teammates that really just remind you why you play the game. … There’s a lot of moments in those seven years that I wouldn’t trade for anything.”
Plenty of players who have faced similar setbacks and delays have retired before realizing their MLB dream. The grind can become too taxing. For Holmes, it was his faith and God that helped him stay focused and grounded.
“My confidence, my identity, who I am and what I can do is not really tied into some title that’s given to me,” Holmes told MLB.com in 2024. “Obviously it’s an honor and a great thing, but knowing who I am, knowing what I’m capable of and the pitcher I can be — the person I am — those things weren’t stripped away.”
His faith grew even deeper right before he was traded to the Yankees, where he wanted to embrace being a living sacrifice for God.
“When you become that living sacrifice, there’s a freedom that comes with it that allows you to just display the talents and the uniqueness that God’s given you — and the identity you have in Him — in a way that’s much greater than you can do on your own,” he said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast.
And it was during his All-Star season of 2022 when he learned how to rest better. A passage he leaned on was Psalm 23.
“For me, it’s a mental thing of just learning how to rest in those things and trust that God’s brought you to a place and He’s going to continue to lead you,” he said. “You can find a lot of rest in that.”
Holmes will make his next start on Friday against the Cincinnati Reds, then make one more scheduled start before the end of the regular season.
Who people say Jesus is, is one thing, but who you say Jesus is, is everything.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey on the morning of Palm Sunday, “the whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?’” (Matthew 21:10b). Some saw Him as a miracle worker. Others saw Him as a prophet. Still others saw Him as a teacher. Others called Him their King.
While all of those titles were true, none of them went far enough. Peter got it right when Jesus asked him who people say He is (Matthew 16:13-16). Ultimately, “Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’”
What about you? It’s possible to admire Jesus and still not surrender to Him. It’s possible to wear crosses, quote Scripture, thank God after games, and still keep Him at arm’s length. The crowd shouted “Hosanna” on Sunday and “crucify Him” by Friday. Emotion is not the same as conviction. Hype is not the same as faith. Public energy is not the same as personal surrender.
So here is the call: Don’t let culture define Christ for you. Don’t let the crowd influence your confession. Don’t settle for saying Jesus is just inspiring, helpful or important. Ask yourself honestly: “Is He Lord of my life? Is He my Savior? Is He my King?” Because who others say Jesus is may start a conversation, but who you say Jesus is will determine your direction, your foundation and your eternity.
