Paige Creasey - Formerly Softball

I was…

Since the first-grade, softball had been a huge part of who I was. All year-round training lead to summer ball teams, recruitment camps and this burning desire to compete at the highest level I could. When I got older, around high school, I realized softball was the most consistent attribute about my life. My parents had gotten a divorce when I was six years old and growing up, amy mom moved houses almost religiously. If she wasn’t moving homes, I was switching between parents. This inconsistency for my home life was so taxing on my identity and on top of that I didn’t always fit in at school. Even on my softball teams and at youth group I never felt seen or wanted. I worked really hard in all areas of life to get people to notice me or be proud of me. I joined so many clubs and teams and worked hard in school. I just tried to be the perfect child, but I always felt so alone. The game of softball was always the one consistent thing that never changed for me. I could train and play regardless of people around me, and even though it was a platform for me to earn approval from people, the game itself was a safe place for me. My identity was completely found in softball

But Christ

I grew up going to church my whole life, but it wasn’t until my senior year that I really began to follow Jesus. It was on a trip to South Carolina that my identity first began to shift from performance driven goals to seeing Gods love for me as His daughter. It was at this time I really began struggling with softball as well. My senior season began, and I was not enjoying it. The first outdoor practice I sprained my ankle and was put in a boot for the first month. The first game back my shoulder began to pop in and out of socket and the process of PT began. Nothing was working. Instead of getting stronger, my shoulder was weakening. I later found out I had to have surgery and sit out for the summer season.

God had prepared me with that trip to South Carolina, He began revealing truth about me then that was crucial for that coming summer, because without softball I began to panic. Who am I without softball? What was my consistent? The Lord started to show me then that He was and has always been my consistent. He walked with me through my surgery, through that summer and through the beginning of college here at IWU. My first year at IWU was one of the hardest times. Loneliness meant a whole new thing being four hours away from home and not being able to play softball. God really began teaching me about myself and about Himself. He started to show me that being His child is who I am, and who I am meant to be. He has walked with me since before my parents’ divorce, before my surgery and He continues to walk through this journey with me up until the present day and I have no doubt that tomorrow He will too.

And now…

Currently, I made the hardest decision to step down from the softball team. This was the hardest decision for me to make. Like I said, I have played softball since the first grade and it has been a big part of who I am. I loved being part of IWU’s softball team and the athletic department as a whole. Never have I been a part of an organization so focused on glorifying Christ through athletics before, it was truly an answer to prayer to get to play here even for a short period of time. However, I felt God was asking me to give Him softball as a sacrifice to Him. I felt He wanted more of my time to be spent with Him growing in relationship. It has been hard, trusting in this place of waiting, trusting that this step of obedience is going to be used. I miss softball all the time. I miss being an athlete. However, the more I have missed it the more I have desired to know God more, for Him to reveal more of Himself to me, more of my own true identity without softball.

Its very cool to me to look back at everything I have gone through and how I thought growing up that everything happened because of softball. Having identity, finding enjoyment, going to IWU. I always thought it was from softball. Now looking back, I see it was God. He worked through softball to bring me to this point, to show me more of Him. Now He is using the absence of softball.

Life Verse

“What then shall we say to these things, if God is for us who can be against us?” Romans 8:31

Challenge to Other Athletes/Coaches

I truly do not believe everyone needs to quit their sport in order to follow God and grow closer to Him. I don’t believe you need a sport to grow closer to Him either. I do believe you need to take some of what we learn from sports and use those skills to grow closer to Him. Discipline in devotions is huge. If you’re going to give your all-in school and practice and to your teams you should be doing the same in your relationship with God as well. Set a time every day to meet with Him. Get in the Word, spend time in prayer, spend time in silence just listening! Just delight yourself in the presence of the Lord. He will not fail to meet with you.

I also encourage you to view your sports teams as the body of Christ. Encourage one another as the Church, be unified in Christ. Just do everything to the glory of Christ.