Tag: faith in God

Jacob Tamme: ‘Faith in God Comes First in Life’ (Gospel Light Minute #135)

8916-tamme-jacob_largeHe is a tight end for the Denver Broncos. Before going to the Broncos in 2012, he was drafted in the fourth round of the 2008 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts. He played college football for the University of Kentucky, and as a senior, he earned first-team All-SEC honors from both the Associated Press and the coaches polls.

In 2007, he was named the SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year and elected to the first-team Academic All-America squad by the College Sports Information Directors of America. He was the 2007 recipient of the Bobby Bowden Award, a national honor presented by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

He helped his teams, the Colts and the Broncos, win the AFC Championship, the Colts in 2009 and the Broncos 2013. He recently helped to lead his team, the Denver Broncos, to a Super Bowl berth in the January 19th’s AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots. His team played the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 48 on February 2, 2014.

He said of his faith, “I’ve been blessed with two great parents who taught me how to do things the right way and that provided a great foundation for my spiritual life. Today, I am very thankful to have a life partner in my wife and a son. This has given me a great responsibility to lead my family in our faith, relationship with Christ, and provide the same foundation that my parents provided for me. To me, this is the thing that matters most in life.”

“My faith is important because it’s the core of why I believe we exist as humans. Faith allows us to spend an eternity with God and it fuels my every day actions. I’ve seen how having faith in God can change lives and it certainly has changed mine….God has to come first in all of our lives, then family second. Everything else that we chose in life comes after. Football is very consuming and I love being able to go out and compete week in and week out, but you have to elevate the other two (faith and family) because they are most important and the cornerstones of our lives.”

His name is Jacob Tamme.

Ben Zobrist: Learning to Trust God Through the Ups and Downs (Gospel Light Minute #125)

Ben Zobrist
Ben Zobrist

He is a professional baseball player for the Tampa Bay Rays. His versatility on the field allows him to play most positions except pitcher and catcher. He has been second baseman for the Rays since 2009. In 2009, he earned a trip to his first All Star Game in St. Louis. While there the Baseball Writers Association of America named him MVP of the Rays for that year.

Growing up as the son of a Baptist preacher in Eureka, Illinois, he played baseball since he was eight-years-old. He became a Christian at an early age and as he grew older, his faith in God increased. After no scouts looked at him when he graduated from high school, he thought his career was over, but God had other plans for him. Soon God opened up doors for him to play at Olivet Nazarene University, and then at Dallas Baptist University where he played shortstop.

During the in-between times when he was uncertain of his baseball career, he said, “I wondered why God allowed this to happen and I started to have lots of doubts. But God allows things to happen the way He wants, and we need to accept it joyfully and to love Him through things that don’t happen the way we would like in life. The Bible says: ‘And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.’ Being sent up and down in both 2007 and 2008 was a great lesson for me. I had a prideful and wrong attitude about success. God was saying to me, ‘Keep working, keep glorifying Me; wherever you are, don’t grow weary in doing good for in due time, you will reap.’ I am learning to enjoy the experience God put me in at the moment and glorifying Him in that.”

His former teammate Brian Shouse said of him, “Ben is the kind of player you would want on your team…he plays hard, he wants to learn and improve, and he has a great attitude. He is a very active Christian and he looks for ways he can help and encourage others in life. He has found peace and joy in his life through his faith in Jesus.”

His name is Ben Zobrist.