Athletes In Christ


Adam Sheefel Sport: Baseball Team: Cincinnati Reds
Before I begin I would like to apologize for my writing style, or lack there of. The good Lord has blessed me with many gifts in my life writing in certainly not one of them. After saying this I ask the Lord to bless my Heart, Mind, and Hand as I speak to you through these words. I also pray that the Lord would open your Hearts and Minds to this message of how He has blessed my life. I am not sure how to start this off, so I will just give you some of the basics of my life and go from there. I was born December 20 1977, so that makes me 24 as I write this. I am the youngest of three children born to my loving parents, David and Barb Sheefel. I have an older sister Christina who is 29, and an older brother Scott who is 26. I was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I know there are a lot of testimonies that begin with the speaker or writer revealing a painful or hurtful past. It may have been an alcoholic parent, an abuse of some kind, whether mental, physical, or substance, even the death of a family member or close friend. Something in there life that led that person to seek the Lord. That is not my story. My story is of a boy who became a man, thinking he was right with God, but in the end found how far from Him he truly was. I have to say that since I was born I have lived a blessed life. I have always had all the necessities of life. I have also had a lot of luxuries too. I have never been needy, but I have also not been given everything I have wanted. Up until third grade my family attended church faithfully every Sunday and even some Wednesday night services. Then, around third grade we moved, and stopped going to church. There was no one reason why we stopped going, we just did, and being about 8 years old and disliking church I had no complains. For the next decade I stepped into a church on a handful of occasions. My mother would mention small things from the bible, believing in God, asking Jesus for help, praying. But almost always I would block her out. I knew there was a God, I believed in Jesus Christ, I believed in Satan, in Haven and Hell, in Angles and Demons. I always figured that was enough, how wrong I was. I now look back and realize that I had the basic facts for Christianity but not the whole story. One thing my parents did an outstanding job was giving me impeccable morals and standards. Which unbeknown to me came mostly form the Bible. In high school I was a good student As and Bs throw a C in there too. I was fairly popular, went to parties, hung out with the in crowd. I never caused any major problems, my mouth sometimes would get me into trouble, but it also got me out of a lot too. I thank God for the gift of quick wits. For some reason during high school the Lord kept me from diving into drugs and alcohol like a lot of my friends and classmates were. It was a combination of the morals taught to me by my parents and a fear of hurting my baseball career. Another gift the Lord has blessed me with is a strong left arm and aim. Two things pitchers covet most. Baseball has been a part of my life ever since I can remember. When baseball season came around I became the star athlete. (I need to put a footnote in here that Humility when it came to baseball was not one of my strong points.) I would have to say at this point in my life other than family, baseball was by far the most important thing to me. Baseball was how I was known to a lot of people. I was the lefty from Snider High School, the lefty from Georgetown Little League, then the Lefty from Fort Wayne and I loved it. Baseball was who I was, how I was known, and what I wanted. The summer before my junior year of High School I was invited to play on a traveling baseball team. That summer I threw around 55 innings and gave up NO runs. Then, at the start of baseball my junior year for the first month of the season I was still throwing great. The only bad thing was I knew it, and I was becoming fairly arrogant. At this point I was planning on attending a major Division I college to play baseball. Right about then the Lord decided to step in, because he had other plans. Later I heard a joke which states If you want to make God laugh tell him YOUR plans for YOUR life I am glad I gave God a good laugh. One fateful night about half way into the season I through a pitch and pop went my elbow. I was done for the year. NO summer baseball, no talking to college coaches, nothing. Having your whole life geared toward baseball and being told you cant play and may never play again is not easy for a 17 year old. I went from being sure I was going to play Division I college baseball to maybe not even going to college. But God knew my thoughts; I was good student and was not planning on going to college unless I played baseball. Going into my senior season of baseball I did not know what to expect. My arm felt strong but the injury from the year before was ever present in my mind. Well, the first game I went out and through a no-hitter. Being left handed and throwing in the high 80s a few division II and III schools took notice, but no division I schools. I still was not sure if I was going to go the college, and I voiced this thought to my Mother. She advised me to pray about it, but of course I blocked her out. That is why I am so thankful she prayed to the Lord on behalf of her son. That is when things started to get weird. The pitching coach for Ball State University, John Lowery came to see another player for a local school but that game got rained out, Coach Lowery asked one of the coaches of the team if there were any other players around that he should take a look at. That coach mentioned my no-hitter and being left handed. Coach Lowery drove an hour to come to the game were I was playing. The only problem was I was not pitching that day. Another opportunity for the Lord to step in. My high school coach had not beaten the team we were playing since becoming a head coach and wanted to win badly. It just so happened we were winning by one in the last inning and coach put me in. I struck out the side and we won. More importantly however, coach Lowery saw me throw. He went back to Ball State and told head coach Rich Maloney to come and check me out. Coach Maloney came and saw me warm up and offered me a scholarship before I through a pitch in the game; I went on to throw a three hit shut out that game. My senior year I led the state of Indiana in Earn Run Average, I had a 0.44 ERA. I was left handed through in the upper eighties with a great curve ball. I had one Division I scholarship offer and that was to Ball State. God wanted me at Ball State. Why did God want me at Ball State? That question was answered when I met two very important people. First, I met the Head Baseball Coach and very strong Christian Rich Maloney. Second, was my catcher and future roommate Jon Kessick. What drew me to Coach and Kess, was that they both had a fire about them, they Loved life. It wasnt baseball, it wasnt there friends, it wasnt even there families, though these all added to the fire. IT WAS THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST. I saw what they had and I wanted it. I wanted it so bad I was one of the main reasons why I chose to live with Kess our sophomore year. It was during our sophomore year that coach Maloney decided to sponsor a group called Fellowship of Christian Athletes, FCA at Ball State. He also asked my roommate Kess to lead this group. During one of our weekly meetings Coach was speaking and asked us to list our top five most important things in our lives. I ask you to do the same now. My list read as follows. 1. Family 2. Baseball 3. Friends 4. School 5. Money As I look at this list know I truly realize how sad of a list it is. After finishing our lists Coach told us to keep them to ourselves. He then made a statement I will not easily forget. He told us if God is not at the top of your list you are in serious trouble. It took me a few years to truly comprehend the significance of that list. You see everything on my list and everything on your list other than God will fail you. Family, friends, and money will fail you; even love can fail you by leading you astray. Not God, God cant fail, he does not know how too. He never has failed anyone so why would he start with you, HE WONT. I started to learn that night where to put my trust, IN CHRIST. I had only started to learn, but still had not offered my life to Christ, nor received salvation, which only Christ can deliver. After a while however, I could feel myself running from Christ, the reason for this was that every time I came in the presence of Christ, every time I read the Bible, went to Church, FCA, or talked about God, I would feel terrible. Not just mentally but physically. As with most things in my life I can look back now and realize that it was the Lord convicting me of my sins. The closer I got to him the stronger the convictions grew. Which led up to one fateful night, were I let my pride and arrogance get the better of me. I was sick of the convictions, sick of hearing about God but not knowing what he wanted, sick of hearing He wanted a relationship with me, but not knowing if He truly did. Mostly however I was just sick of being empty inside. In my anger, pride, and pain I got on my knees and prayed the following prayer. God Im sick of this crap. Im sick of hearing you may or may not want a relationship with me, Im sick of feeling the way I feel all the time. If you want a relationship with me you have to show me, I need a sign that you want me. And not some small thing that may or may not be a sign I want there to be no doubt. If you want me you have to show me you are the only way. Show me that I need you in my life. BRING IT. As I spoke these last two words instead of amen I opened my eyes, looked through my ceiling, past the clouds, and stars, right up into Heaven. The bad thing was I felt good about doing so. I felt like I had showed God up. I told you I had a problem with pride. I got a response to my prayer in less than 24 hours. The next day was one of the best days of my college career, classes, baseball practice; everything about the day was perfect. Until my pride took over one thought in my head, just one. That thought was I knew I didnt need God in my life. Again, as I look back on my arrogance and stupidity I am amazed. God gave me a great day and I through it right in His face. That is why I thank Him always for His Infinite Patience. It is funny how you remember certain things in your life. I remember exactly how my next step that I took after that thought felt. I felt something like apprehension or unease in my soul. I really cant describe it. As I was entering the house I grabbed a letter out of the mailbox, which was from my father. That night as I read this letter alone in my room I found out just how much I needed Christ. In the beginning of this letter my father wrote Your mother and I have tried to raise you right with good morals and judgment, but in the eyes of our God I have failed you. Even now as I write these words my eyes get misty remembering how in four pages my father listed his failures toward God and me. That letter, Gods words to me from my father did one thing, they broke me. For the first time in my life I was lost and did not know where to turn. As I sat in my room weeping only one thing came into my sight, the Holy Bible. It was at this exact moment I realized how much I needed Christ in my life; I just didnt know how to receive Him. I then did the only thing I could think of; I prayed. I prayed God would show me how to become part of His family. This prayer also took less than 24 hours to be answered. After FCA the next night Kess gave me a ride home. We pulled into the garage, and he asked if we could talk for a second. The Lord then put the perfect words in Jons month. You see I thought that I could not be apart of God because I didnt know enough about Him. I knew little about what the Bible taught. Kess said, I dont know close to everything in the Bible. I pretty much know the basics. But I do know the Lord is with me. So I asked how do you know that. He told me how he was saved, how he prayed for the Lord to enter his heart and lead him through life. He then asked if I wanted to do this also. I said yes. There and then I prayed to receive Christ as my Lord and savior. Since that day I have trusted Christ to Lead, Carry, and sometimes even Push me through this life. The Lord has done a lot of work shaping and molding me. I know He still has a lot more to do. I welcome the trials and piece, which a life in Christ brings. TO SERVE GOD IS THE ONLY THING I AM MENT TO DO. God has allowed me to use baseball to serve Him, for that I am always grateful. After college, the Cincinnati Reds selected me in the 17th round of the 2000 Major League Baseball Draft. My affiliation with the Reds allows me many opportunities to share the Love, Power, and Grace of Christ Jesus. As I look back at the path the Lord has led me down, I now realize all I need, want, and have the Lord has allowed. All my questions he will answer in His time. I have heard people say that hindsight is 20/20. I now see why things happened the way they did, and why some of my prayers were not granted. They were all answered but sometimes I didnt like the answer Christ gave. The comforting thing is God has the hindsight, foresight, and every other sight that exists, and He has it all working for you and me. I thank Him for that. Christ has done many amazing things for me and through me. He has giving me many gifts, just as He has given you. The question is, have you accepted the gifts He has given you or do you want someone elses. An even more important question is, have you accepted Him. If you have not I urge you to take this time and evaluate what is important in your life. Remember Heaven and Hell are real. Time on this earth will end, eternity is forever. You must ask your self Whom Do You Serve. If the answer is not Christ, it pains me greatly to say this, but you are in serious trouble. As I finish now I want you to realize it is never to late, no sin or pain is to great, no past too dark, for God to forgive, heal and lighten. God is mightier than all and His grace is sufficient for all. Ask His forgiveness and He will cleanse your soul of everything. He is waiting to be your Savior, He is the only way. All you have to do is ask, but you must ask, that is the only way. Ask and ye shall receive. I thank you for your time and pray that you allow Christ to live in and through you. Adam Sheefel Previous Athlete Testimonies Bryan Bullington - Baseball: Kansas City Royals Austin Chubb - Baseball: State College of Florida Dean Diebel - Baseball: Sierra College Brian Friday - Baseball: Pittsburgh Pirates Bryan Bullington - Baseball: Kansas City Royals Trey Johnston - Baseball: San Diego Padres Bo Cogbill - Baseball: Texas Christian University Brian Kelley - Baseball: Florida State Seminoles Jake Duncan - Baseball: Baltimore Orioles Jonathan Schneider - Baseball: Pittsburgh Pirates John Wasdin - Baseball: Texas Rangers 2004 David Murphy - Baseball: Texas Rangers John Barnes - Baseball: Pittsburgh Pirates Doug Brubaker - Baseball: Baltimore Orioles Bo Dring - Baseball: Florida Gators Eric Roman - Baseball: Florida State Seminoles Buddy Groom - Baseball: Baltimore Orioles Brian Adams - Baseball: Boston Red Sox Joe Jackson - Football: Minnesota Vikings / New York Jets