Saving Strawberry

Sometimes my old days as a sportscaster come back to visit me. Next week I’m attending a luncheon where the keynote speaker is former New York Mets all-star outfielder, Darrell Strawberry.

I worked in New York City at the Madison Square Garden Network the final year of Strawberry’s stint with the Mets, but the coverage we gave him wasn’t always positive. Despite his amazing talent, Strawberry was not a “choir boy,” and was the center of controversy. Over the years, his struggle with drugs also tarnished his sparkling career.

In his 17-years in Major League Baseball, Strawberry was suspended from baseball three times for drug abuse. Post-baseball career, he served a short prison sentence for illegal drug use. To add to the trouble, Strawberry is also a colon cancer survivor, even though at one point he decided to throw in the towel, and stop chemotherapy treatments.

But God is still merciful.

God still heals.

God still transforms hearts and minds.

Today, Strawberry is a pastor with his wife, Tracy, who also battled drug addiction, outside St. Louis, Missouri. They share their story as a powerful illustration of the true power of God, and his redeeming love. They are on a mission to lead people to Jesus Christ, and to restore lives and relationships through the power of God and the process of change.

How does this happen?

Only God can cut through the chains that bind us. He still saves, and he saved Darrell Strawberry from certain death.

I have to believe that somewhere along his journey, Darrell Strawberry cried out to God in his brokenness, through the haze of the addictions that imprisoned him, and his loving Abba Father heard his cry and rescued him.

Psalm 107:19-21 says, “Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them, he rescued them from the grave. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind.”

And now Darrell Strawberry is giving thanks, and I can’t wait to hear what he has to say to glorify God.

While I still love sports, it is this kind of story that I consider a headline now. There is nothing like a story about how God restores a life that seems destined for demolition. A story of how he takes a wandering soul and places them on the right path.

Is that your story?

If not, it can be.

“I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind but now I see.”