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Posted by: Bradley McDonald

Recently, I stumbled across this article on Lance Berkman, an outfielder with Houston. Of course, I've always been a big Berkman fan by default (he's an Astro), but this article will give you reason to cheer for the guy, too.

Berkman started out slowly this year due to an injury that kept him out of the first month of the season, but if you've ever seen him bat when he's on, you know he's a pure hitter. He's also a good guy, as you can tell from the quotes below.

"What makes me any better than anybody else, just because I can hit a little ball with a piece of wood? I guess it's cool, and I'm very thankful for the Lord blessing me with that ability—but at the same time, our society is really warped about what is admirable and what is not. And I want to show people that I'm just an average Joe."

Obviously, Berkman missed Ego 101 and its textbook, How to Satisfy Me, at Rice University. He had his head in a different book: the Bible. That book—when accompanied by a relationship with its author, God—will change a man from self-centered to self-less.

"If I do get into the situation of being famous just because of what I can do [spoken as if he failed to hear the roaring crowds or see the knee-high stack of mail at his locker], I want to remain humble and be a servant," Berkman says. "I don't ever want to get to the point where I feel like I deserve special treatment. I just want to be a guy that, no matter what, is an encourager to my teammates and is always willing to serve and is not looking to be served. I'm no different. Like any man, I'm fighting battles in my mind and continually working to overcome obstacles. I want to walk in humility."

He goes on to talk about his goals after baseball:

"I want to start a church," says Berkman, adding that it would be in Houston. "I've already got some ideas about the kind of church it would be. There is so much division in the church today … I think we've gotten away from the true gospel, which is Jesus Christ, Him crucified, and His love that He showed to the masses, and the way He dealt with people. I think what He calls us to do is to love as many people into the kingdom as we can. The kind of church I want to have is straight-from-the-Bible teaching, line-by-line, verse-by-verse, and at the same time a body that is truly active in the community to show the love of Christ."

When most athletes talk about goals, they speak of certain statistical plateaus, or a championship, or the Hall of Fame. Lance Berkman may attain all of those, but only as a minor part of a greater purpose, a purpose He doesn't completely understand yet, but one in which he is confident of God's leading.

"I can totally see the hand of God working in my life, dictating a path here or there, bringing this person in, allowing me to have this experience or go through that. It is mind-boggling when I stop and think about how He has controlled the path and blessed me," Lance says. "I don't think I appreciate it like I should. God's ways are so much higher than our ways, we can't even comprehend them."