Jacksonville Chapel/Emergence

I'm sitting here doing something I haven't done since I was in middle school--watching the MLB All-Star Home Run Derby. I think I turned it on just to see the craziness at Yankee Stadium. I resolved to give it through the first round until I turn it off.

I am not turning it off.

I am sitting here watching what I believe is probably the best testimony about the power of Jesus Christ that the mainstream world has ever seen. I don't say that lightly.

Before tonight, I had never heard of a guy named Josh Hamilton. I am a recovering Texas Ranger fan, so I have lost track of the major players. The Yankees have won my heart over the years. No matter how I feel about the Rangers, Josh Hamilton is now my favorite player of all time.

On the field, the guy is insane. He just hit 28 home runs in the first round of the Derby. That's a new record. An impressive feat, yes. But who is this guy?

It turns out there's a good reason I have never heard of Josh Hamilton. At 18 years old, he was the first pick of the 1999 MLB draft. The (Devil) Rays drafted him, and he was expected to ignite their team to the top.

Hamilton got a huge signing bonus with the Rays--$3.96 million. He started playing in the minor league system, and was well on his way to the majors. Things seemed to be going well. 

In 2001, Hamilton began experimenting with drugs. He started with "lighter drugs" and then began using cocaine--which led to crack cocaine. He was an addict. He blew his signing bonus, his drive, and his baseball career.

"Not that long ago, there were nights I went to sleep in strange places praying I wouldn't wake up. After another night of bad decisions, I'd lie down with my heart speeding inside my chest like it was about to burst through the skin. My thinking was clouded, and my talent was one day closer to being totally wasted."

In 2003 he was kicked out by Major League Baseball for drug abuse. He disappeared from the public eye.

Hamilton entered rehab and got clean in 2005.

After being out of baseball for 3 years, Hamilton (once the number one pick of the MLB draft!) was picked up third in the Rule 5 (Amateur) draft. He was starting over. No signing bonus. No hype. Josh Hamilton was back in baseball.

"My wife, Katie, told me this day would come. At my lowest point, about three years ago, when I was wasting away to skin and bones and listening to nobody, she told me I'd be back playing baseball someday. She had no reason to believe in me. During that time, I did nothing to build my body and everything to destroy it. I'd go five or six months without picking up a ball or swinging a bat. By then, I'd been in rehab five or six times -- on my way to eight -- and failed to get clean. I was a bad husband and a bad father, and I had no relationship with God. Baseball wasn't even on my mind.

And still Katie told me, "You're going to be back playing baseball, because there's a bigger plan for you." I couldn't even look her in the eye. I said something like, "Yeah, yeah, quit talking to me."

"I go to sleep every night with a clear mind and a clear conscience. Every day, I walk into an immaculate clubhouse with 10 TVs and all the food I can eat, a far cry from the rat-infested hellholes of my user past. I walk to my locker and change into a perfectly clean and pressed uniform that someone else hung up for me. I grab a bat and a glove and walk onto a beautifully manicured field to play a game for a living.

How am I here? I can only shrug and say, "It's a God thing." It's the only possible explanation."

And here he is. The all time Home Run Derby record holder. He said tonight that he had a dream that he was in the Home Run Derby a while ago. Sounds like a good dream. All his dreams weren't good ones, though...

"Within my first week of sobriety in October 2005 -- after I showed up at my grandmother's house in Raleigh in the middle of the night, coming off a crack binge -- I had the most haunting dream. I was fighting the devil, an awful-looking thing. I had a stick or a bat or something, and every time I hit the devil, he'd fall and get back up. Over and over I hit him, until I was exhausted and he was still standing.

I woke up in a sweat, as if I'd been truly fighting, and the terror that gripped me makes that dream feel real to this day. I'd been alone for so long, alone with the fears and emotions I worked so hard to kill. I'm not embarrassed to admit that after I woke up that night, I walked down the hall to my grandmother's room and crawled under the covers with her. The devil stayed out of my dreams for seven months after that. I stayed clean and worked hard and tried to put my marriage and my life back together. I got word in June 2006 that I'd been reinstated by Major League Baseball, and a few weeks afterward, the devil reappeared.

It was the same dream, with an important difference. I would hit him and he would bounce back up, the ugliest and most hideous creature you could imagine. This devil seemed unbeatable; I couldn't knock him out. But just when I felt like giving up, I felt a presence by my side. I turned my head and saw Jesus, battling alongside me. We kept fighting, and I was filled with strength. The devil didn't stand a chance.

You can doubt me, but I swear to you I dreamed it. When I woke up, I felt at peace. I wasn't scared. To me, the lesson was obvious: Alone, I couldn't win this battle. With Jesus, I couldn't lose."

Josh's life has been changed completely.

"But there is one story that sticks with me, so much so that I think of it every day. I was driving out of the players' parking lot at Great American Ball Park after a game in May, with Katie and our two girls. There's always a group of fans standing at the curb, hoping to get autographs, and I stop to sign as many as I can.

And on this particular night, a little boy of about 9 or 10, wearing a Reds cap, handed me a pen and something to sign. Nothing unusual there, but as I was writing the boy said, "Josh, you're my savior."

This stopped me. I looked at him and said, "Well, thank you. Do you know who my savior is?"

He thought for a minute. I could see the gears turning. Finally, he smiled and blurted out, "Jesus Christ." He said it like he'd just come up with the answer to a test. "That's exactly right," I said."

This guy is the real deal. He didn't write all of this on some obscure blog or some little-read book. His testimony is right out front. These quotes were taken from an article he wrote on ESPN.com.

In a world of half-hearted, shallow shout outs to Jesus at sporting events, this guy is the real deal. It is so interesting how the world takes notice, too. Karl Ravech, from ESPN, just said live on the air "Look at the way this kid's life has been changed. Look at the way he hits the ball. It's a bad night to be an atheist."

Tomorrow, baseball becomes boring again. Tonight, it is the best sport I've ever seen.

*******

UPDATE: Josh didn't win the Derby--but he stayed classy. Well played, Hamilton. Well played.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here's the video of all of his home runs from the other night!