Mikayla Baillie - Women’s Track and Field

I was…

Full of pride and unaware of what the Gospel could do to my life. I grew up in a diverse and broken home. Faith was never talked about. Church wasn’t something my siblings and I were familiar with. I spent most of my time with my friends pursing things of the world. Sports were my idol. They were all I cared about. With sports came pride, selfishness and insecurities. After some time these things were all that I became. Consumed by these deadly habits I was lost.

The crazy thing about it was that I had no idea how much I was missing out on. It wasn’t until I was tricked into going to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes week long summer camp that I began to see what faith was.

But Christ

Introduced me to himself in the most gentle and subtle way. During FCA camp he showed me how to love him AND sports similaneously. He taught me what worship was. He revealed to me the idol I was letting control my life, and rather than punishing me for my mistakes he cared for me and used my biggest distraction as the way to win my heart. My relationship with the Lord started out with grace, love and truth. From that moment on something shifted inside of me.

Before I was pursing worldly affirmation, personal gain, and praise. After God revealed himself to me i stopped looking for the approval of my coaches, family and friends and started to understand my purpose in playing sports and living my life.

Honestly God came in at the perfect time for me. Shortly after accepting Christ my personal life got super rocky. My family was falling apart and I was forced to grow up faster than I wanted. I became angry, depressed and confused. When everything I had known to be stable in my life was falling apart, the one constant and faithful factor was Christ. I could not have gotten through high school without Christ. It was as if he knew that I was going to need him to survive that difficult part of my life.

And now…

I have been wrecked repeatedly by God. He has shown me time and time again his love, consistency. Everytime I have walked in the opposite direction of him he has welcomed me back with open arms. After he introduced himself to me, sports stopped being the most important thing in my life. As my old life seemed to become less and less familiar. I look back and I am amazed at how God protected me.

I met Christ at the perfect time in my life. Since then I have had amazing opportunities to serve him. I have dedicated my life to showing kids and athletes the truth that I discoved all those years ago at a small sports camp. I get the amazing opportunity to continue my love for sports at the collegiate level. Here I get to meet new athletes eveyday and share in the beauty of the Lord.

Life Verse

“ Rejoice Always, pray continually and give thanks in all crcumstances; for this is God will for you in Christ Jesus.”

- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Challenge to Other Athletes/Coaches

Something I thought when I first accepted Christ was that my life would just all the sudden be great. I thought my troubles would disappear and I wouldn’t feel the sissapointment I had felt so often. This just wasn’t true. As athletes we know that life doesn’t always get easier with Christ. It honestly might get hardeer. But what we can count on is that our life will become better with Christ. Nothing comapres to the treasures we will face some day in heaven. All over the bible it talks about suffering for the world while keeping in mind that the suffering will not last forever. Sports are hard physically, emotionally and mentally. Sometimes it can get the better of us. Knowing this reality I challenge the Athletes and coaches to not try to handle these struggles on their own..

I encourage you to..

1. Humble yourself daily

2. Love everybody intentionally

3. Be vulnerable

4. Seek accountability

5. Seek Genuine Joy

If we want to experience the true love of Christ these are some of the things I have learned over my time here at Indiana Wesleyan. If we focus our eyes on Gods people and stop looking at ourselves we can experience the fullness of Christ. As athletes it is difficult to look past ourselves. We have all been there. We are the center of our world and the only people that get to be in our world are those who we let in.

I believe these five principles change that mindset for ourselves. Once we develop genuine care and joy for other people we stop thinking about ourselves and see the goodness of God in everything! Praise God!