God Used Injury to Change MLB Pitcher Kyle Gibson’s Life: ‘Jesus Has This Priority’
By Movieguide® Contributor
St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Kyle Gibson opened up about how God used a high school injury to change the trajectory of his life and faith.
Gibson was drafted in the first round of the 2009 MLB Draft as the overall 22 pick. He was elated to fulfill his childhood dreams and share his faith with those he met.
However, faith wasn’t always his priority.
“Baseball was always constantly in the way, you know. It really wasn’t in the way, but I allowed it to be in the way because I enjoyed being the baseball Kyle Gibson,” he said on Sports Spectrum’s “I Once Was” series.
However, God used a potentially sports-ending injury to refocus Gibson’s life.
“When I was 15, I made a play at shortstop, heard a ripping noise in my elbow, and honestly I was so devastated because I had nothing else to put my life in,” he explained. “I thought I was never going to play again.”
“I ended up needing surgery that took baseball away from me for probably about six months, and that was the first summer that I got the chance to go on a youth retreat and to go to Ridge Crest North Carolina to really dive into what faith in Jesus can do for my life for seven straight days,” he continued.
“For the first time, baseball was not around and God used that moment to better my life for eternity,” he said previously, per What Christians Want to Know.
His time at summer camp “drastically changed” him.
“I had realized that Jesus has this priority in my life and what he has done for me is something that baseball, something that man, anything else can’t do,” Gibson described. “It just gave me a completely new perspective on life, and it gave me something to base my life and identity on.”
“No longer was I a baseball player who went to church,” he explained. “I was a follower of Christ and a believer in Jesus that played baseball. It gave me something to always be rooted in and it has given me something to always guide me and give me a sense of direction.”
Gibson continues to use his platform to glorify God.
The Blaze reported that his former teammate, Brian Dozier, knew immediately that Gibson’s faith was important to him.
“Kyle and [his wife] Elizabeth do a lot of good things during the season with community work, leading others to Christ. At our last Faith Night at Target Field held after a ball game, Kyle gave his testimony so the people heard his story about coming to Christ and his faith walk with Christ,” Dozier said.
“Kyle and Elizabeth have taken mission trips in the off-season as have my wife and I. Living a Christian lifestyle and letting others see Christ living in him are most important to Kyle,” he added.
Movieguide® previously reported on Gibson:
Kyle Gibson, pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, joined the “Sports Spectrum” podcast to discuss his life as a follower of Christ and how much of a difference prayer makes.
“My prayer life changed dramatically when I realized that I need to have more conversations with God,” he began.
“And I realized that when I’m driving to the park if I have that 20 minutes, let’s spend a few minutes in prayer here,” Gibson continued. “You know, maybe it’s just praying about a family need and really laying it out there, or maybe it’s saying, ‘Hey, you know, I got a group of people coming to the field today, God. Please prepare me and speak through me for this.’”
“When I started changing how I looked at my prayer life, I started losing some of the shame and some of the guilt from not reading [the Bible] as much,” he added. “Which I don’t want it to be a bandaid and an excuse, but it really helped me understand that there are a lot of ways to do this, and it looks a lot different, but I’m a lot better at that.”
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