Introduction
This is a book of devotions written by some of the most talented athletes in America today. Nearly all of them I know personally. I can vouch for their dedication. However, the number of testimonies here is far from complete. They have been selected to insure representation of all major sports, both college and professional athletes, and coaches as well as players, but their number could be multiplied many times across the land in athletes who freely confess their allegiance to Christ and serve Him in His Church.
The sports personalities in this book and many others today are associated with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. FCA is a movement to confront athletes — and through them, the youth of the nation — with the challenge and adventure of following Christ in the fellowship of the Church. This book is one way in which this challenge is being presented.
A careful reading of the following devotional thoughts may surprise you. Certainly it will blast forever the lie that religion is something soft and fragile, an occupation for delicate temperaments.
Those who have written these selections have embraced rigorous discipline and severe bodily punishment as a regular way of life. They compete day after day with the finest physically equipped athletes in the world today. They stay on top by putting 100 per cent of their effort into every jump-up, every turn at bat, every time the center snaps the ball. Besides this, they work in a business in which muscles have dollar signs on them and where fans can make a boy a hero overnight.
In spite of these things, these people confess a common belief that a Man crucified nearly 2000 years ago still lives.
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And if such forthright testimonies can be found in the tough, competitive world of professional athletics, it should be clear that Jesus Christ has something to offer everybody — everywhere!
BRANCH RICKEY
