Clayton Kershaw is a three-time Cy Young Award winner who has had a Hall-of-Fame-type of career, but even stronger than his dominant pitching is Kershaw’s faith in Jesus Christ. He shared about why his faith is important to him and how we are to share God’s love to others in a recent interview with Faith on the Field’s Rob Maaddi.
“I feel like Jesus is the only true way to Heaven,” Kershaw said. “There’s a lot of other things that people believe in and you’re supposed to love everybody. You’re not supposed to convert anybody, that’s God’s job. But at the same time you can be His disciple, you can live for Him and when people ask you why you are living for Him, you can show them why.”
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During the interview, Kershaw told Maaddi that his faith in Jesus became a serious thing for him during his high school days and that despite being a future Hall of Fame baseball pitcher, his identity isn’t found in the game he excels at.
“It’s a gift, I didn’t do anything to deserve that,” said Kershaw. “You never know what could happen, baseball could end tomorrow, but just understanding that God’s in control of it, and we’re not.”
Kershaw believes in charity work and started Kershaw’s Challenge, a Christ-centered, others-focused organization that exists to encourage people to use whatever God-given passion or talent they have to make a difference and give back to people in need.
“Using God’s platform, we don’t think of it as philanthropy, but more stewardship. Whatever God has given us, we’re just a vessel for it. We don’t own anything that we have, it’s all a gift from God, so just trying to be good stewards to what He has given us.”
The eight-time All Star says he believes Christians should stand, unashamed, for their faith, but never be forceful in trying to convert others. We should simply love them.
“You can show them your faith, profess your faith,” said Kershaw. “But at the end of the day, it’s not our job to convert people, we’re supposed to follow Jesus and have people see how we live our lives.”
