{"id":1083,"date":"2011-08-12T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T12:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/?p=1083"},"modified":"2011-08-14T21:45:19","modified_gmt":"2011-08-15T01:45:19","slug":"a-conversation-with-baltimore-orioles-second-baseman-brian-roberts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-baltimore-orioles-second-baseman-brian-roberts.html","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts (Photo by David Carlson\/MLB Photos via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Click “like” to share this with your friends!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brian Roberts first accepted Christ as a 12-year old at a church revival, but it was his freshman year in college while on Christmas break when A.C. Green\u2019s autobiography (a gift from his mother) inspired him to get serious about his faith.<\/p>\n

Now, the Baltimore Orioles second baseman wants to do his part to share that message with baseball fans everywhere as a walking example of God\u2019s grace. In this interview, Roberts talks about trusting in God, his role as a Christian athlete and how his brush with steroids has been used for good:<\/p>\n

Chad Bonham: What Bible principle has been most important to you as a baseball player?<\/p>\n

Brian Roberts: Proverbs 3:5-6<\/a>. Baseball is so up and down. It\u2019s such a game of failure. You go through injuries. You go through all sorts of bad stuff.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How would you define your role as a Christian athlete?<\/p>\n

Roberts: We have a major role. I don\u2019t care who you are. I think God has put you in your position to have an impact eternally more so than anything. A lot of times athletes can get caught up in what\u2019s going on with the game, contracts, money, all that sort of stuff. But I truly believe that the only reason I\u2019m here, the only reason I\u2019m playing baseball is to have an impact for Christ. I can\u2019t imagine why else I would be here. I really don\u2019t have any other reason to be in the place that I am. Nothing logically says I should be here. It just doesn\u2019t make sense. I think it comes out in different ways for people. I\u2019ve never had the type of personality that would make me go out on the street corner and evangelize but I believe that through actions and through living out my faith on a daily basis, that\u2019s how God uses me more than anything. I try to let people know that there is more to my life than baseball. Whether that\u2019s through charity events, speaking engagements or just living it out in front of my teammates, there are so many ways that I can be used.<\/p>\n

Bonham: When your name was mentioned in the Mitchell Report<\/a> and you were linked to steroid use, how did that impact your Christian witness?<\/p>\n

Roberts: (God has) definitely used it already in a lot of ways. For one, I\u2019ve seen that if you don\u2019t keep your focus on God and living your life for God, you can easily fall into the temptations of this world. Personally, that has really resonated within me. I\u2019ve realized that we are sinners and we can fall very quickly into the ways of the world if we don\u2019t keep our focus on Him. I understand that we are role models and I understand that people do look up to us. A lot of people would love to be in that spot, but I also people to realize that they shouldn\u2019t put us on a pedestal and think that we\u2019re perfect. We\u2019re far from it. We\u2019re humans and we fail and we fall short just like everyone else. It\u2019s just that our failures get splattered all over the Internet and ESPN. The lesson really is how you come through that and how you handle those situations. As I have the opportunity to speak to young people about the negative things that are out there\u2014not just steroids\u2014I want to make sure they know how easy it is to fall into some bad situations. The choices that you make will eventually come out. They\u2019ll eventually be seen. What\u2019s going to keep you from doing that? The only thing I can see is your relationship with Christ.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How important is accountability with other Christians?<\/p>\n

Roberts: All too often we get caught up in judging others and we can be short on grace and mercy. You do need biblical correction sometimes and you do need accountability and you do need people to guide you and meet you in a way that will keep you from doing the wrong things over and over again. But you also need those people within the Christian community that will pick you up and show you how to turn these mistakes into something that can be used for good. If you\u2019re a Christian, you are held to a higher standard. That\u2019s what Christ laid out for us. But when we make mistakes and fall into sin, the Bible calls for restoration. It calls for change in your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click “like” to share this with your friends! Brian Roberts first accepted Christ as a 12-year old at a church revival, but it was his freshman year in college while on Christmas break when A.C. Green\u2019s autobiography (a gift from his mother) inspired him to get serious about his faith. Now, the Baltimore Orioles second…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[383,410,3,382,5],"tags":[458,528,106,139,527,529],"class_list":["post-1083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","category-bible","category-christian-athletes","category-qa","category-sports-features","tag-a-c-green","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-brian-roberts","tag-espn","tag-mitchell-report","tag-steroids"],"yoast_head":"\nA conversation with Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts - Inspiring Athletes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-baltimore-orioles-second-baseman-brian-roberts.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A conversation with Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts - Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Click “like” to share this with your friends! 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Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1083"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1392,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions\/1392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}