By Mallory Mattingly
World Series champion and Houston Astros star Carlos Correa turned to God for strength during a terrifying moment when he and his son almost drowned in a Minnesota lake last summer.
While swimming with his 3-year-old, Kylo, son in Lake Minnetonka, Correa’s legs began to cramp. He knew his body wouldn’t be able to support himself and his son, so he turned to God for strength and swam to a buoy just a few feet away.
“‘Lord, save me,'” the father of two told MLB.com of his desperate prayer. “‘I promise you that if you save me from this one, I will serve you and I will serve you forever.'”
Correa and his son reached the buoy, but with little strength left, the baseball player slipped off. He managed to grab the chain underwater, which injured his left hand. As Correa switched from hand to hand, he was able to get up to the surface and scream at a nearby boat for help.
“I’m like, ‘This is all I got,'” he recalled.
Correa’s father-in-law heard him and swam to him with a life jacket. Finally, Correa was able to rest.
“I was like, ‘From that moment on, I’m going to serve you,’” Correa recalled telling God. “I am going to keep my promise. And from that moment, I’ve been fully devoted.”
The athlete has been a follower of Christ for quite some time, but that near-death incident made him dive deeper into his faith.
He even started a Bible study at his house in Houston. It began with only eight people, but it is now up to 60. The group consists of family, friends and teammates. Each Saturday, Correa and those at his house spend five to six hours in Scripture, playing games and talking about life.
“We did really fun stuff, and people felt attracted to it to the point where we were all looking forward to every Saturday so we could meet,” Correa shared. “It became a thing, and then I came [to Spring Training] and it was tough leaving the house church behind, but we’re working on doing some stuff during the season. Maybe before some day games, after Sunday games.”
One of the things that led Correa to form the Bible study is the fact that the more he read the Bible, the more he understood that “it’s impossible for 40 [players] to agree on the same subject when most of them don’t know each other.”
Correa has built his life based on one verse, Colossians 2:23, which is written in the shortstop’s Instagram bio.
It reads: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”
Praise God for how He saved Correa and his son and how He used the incident to strengthen the baseball player’s faith.
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