4 Steps To Conquer Injury as a Christian Athlete

Navigating Faith and Injuries: Overcoming Setbacks with Ronnie Baker

In this episode of Defeat is Optional, Olympic sprinter Ronnie Baker shares personal insights and a devotional focused on maintaining faith through athletic injuries. He answers a compelling question from a listener about staying connected to God during challenging times. Ronnie shares his struggles and spiritual journey following a major hamstring injury in 2017, offering practical steps and biblical wisdom for overcoming emotional and physical setbacks. Discover how staying present, being real in prayer, seeking divine guidance, and staying rooted in scripture can help you navigate through tough seasons. Also, get the latest updates on Defeat is Optional merch and how you can engage with the podcast community on Instagram.

🎙️Defeat is Optional Podcast Fan Page

💊Train Harder, Recover Faster 10% OFF

🛍️Defeat is Optional Merch

📩Join Ronnie’s Inner Circle

Transcript

Ronnie Baker 0:00

It is crazy. What pain will make you run to when you can't run at all.

0:04

He's the third fastest man. Welcome to Defeat is Option. Here comes Ronnie Baker, 9 77. Baker's running away with this one. Surely they can't get back to it. In your journey, the greatness defeat is never the final answer. It's a choice. So let's get to work.

Ronnie Baker 0:21

I am Ronnie Baker, your favorite Olympic sprinter and Christian mentor discipling you on how to navigate your faith in your sport. In today's devotional, we're gonna be answering the questions submitted by 10 oh Tenda 13, and he asks this question, how do you not fall away from the Lord when you're struggling with injuries, especially before a big race or a big meet? I'm excited to be answering this question, and if you wanna get in on the action and have a question answered on the Defeat is optional podcast, you need to go over to the Defeat is Optional podcast page on Instagram and gimme a follow and be on the lookout for the polls. I do. And maybe your question will get selected and I'll create a devotional specifically for you. Secondly is the defeat is optional. Merch has officially launched with our very own wristband. It has the slogan, defeat is optional, along with Second Corinthians four A through 10. That reminds us when we are crushed, we are not destroyed. And defeat is a choice because of Christ's sacrifice they already made for us. So make sure you go over to the feed is optional podcast page on Instagram, which will be linked in the show notes and get your wristband before they're all gone. There's a very limited supply. Alright, back to our devotional. So I'm gonna tell you guys a story to set the scene in 2017, I was having the season of my life. I had just graduated college and I had just won the US indoors that year. I won a couple Diamond leagues. I had one of the fastest times in the world I was looking like a lock for the world championship team. Now obviously nothing is guaranteed, but I was definitely in the mix that year. And then 80 meters into the first race round one, I felt my hamstring grab ever so slightly. And later that day I was worried, but I was optimistic. I was at the championship trials trying to qualify, and I was optimistic that I was gonna be all right the next day. The next day came, and guess what? You guessed it. My leg was swollen and it didn't feel good. I saw all kinds of doctors trying to get my leg together for the next day so I can go to the semifinal round and potentially run. But I ended up getting to that semifinal day and I had to jog the semifinal. I missed the team, and just like that, my shot at my first world championships was over, and that was only the beginning because I still had the rest of the season to finish. I still had three months of running to do. Which meant I was going to be doing rehab while all of my peers competed for the medals in August. So every day in practice, I'd feel good enough one day to practice. Then the next day my hamstring would be nagging and annoying me to the point where I'd have to take a day off. One day, good. The next two days resting. One day I'd run on the track. The next day I'd be on the bike. I felt like I wasn't making any progress. It was constant emotional whiplash. And at the time I was letting my emotions drive my hope. you may feel like you're in this exact same place right now, And when you let your emotions drive your hope, like I was, your faith starts crumbling. Here's what no one tells you about your injury, is that when you get injured, your mind starts reaching for anything to take the edge off. And when I was injured in 2017, I did fall away from God in a few different ways. I started to cope like some athletes do. And what happens, you feed your flesh hoping it'll heal your heart. A couple things that I did. I ate excessive amounts of junk food. I gravitated to more parties and I knew it wasn't gonna help me heal my injury any faster. But why? Why did I do that? Because I couldn't control the outcome. So I tried to control the pain. That was the hardest time in my career. Not just physically, but spiritually as well. So Ronnie, how did you get through it? How did you get over it? How did you get healthy? Here's the breakthrough I had in 2017 while I was injured here's what I was doing. I was always thinking in the future and in the past, I think, or say to myself during this time, if I hadn't got hurt. I would be signed by now, or how fast would I be running right now if I wasn't dealing with this injury? Another thing that would run through my mind. Am I gonna be ready for the big race later this year with all the time off? Am I going to be fast enough to make the team? Now you see how all of these are focused on the past or the future, I'd probably say that you have similar thoughts. And here's what I finally learned, that none of these thoughts are relevant right now, and none of that was real because it hadn't happened to me yet, and the past can't be changed. That's the truth. All these thoughts were was just fear that my brain was disguising as logic. I was trying to rationalize what I was dealing with. I was trying to rationalize is injury. The only real thing is this is what can I do today to move forward? So here's your mindset shift. Second Corinthians eight through 11 paints a picture of Paul pleading with the Lords who removed the thorn from his side. Obviously not a literal one, but a figurative one. He begged that God would take away the cause of his intense suffering. Just like us as athletes, we could be praying to God, asking him daily to heal your body or to allow you to be ready for the big competition, but this is how God answered Paul's prayer and it wasn't the response that he was looking for. This is what God says. He says, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness. We see in this example that when you suffer, you should tell God what you want in prayer. Nevertheless, once you've said your peace, you have to be willing to listen to and accept God's answer. The Lord had determined not to remove Paul's thorn in his flesh. What he did do, however, was grant divine grace that was sufficient for Paul's needs. Paul then says, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And honestly, I don't have to explain that because the word speaks for itself. So here's your answer. How do we not stray from God during injuries? Here's your challenge for today. Step one is stay present. Every time your mind jumps ahead to the future or rewinds the past. Say this, What's in the past is in the past, and what I'm thinking about in the future is not real. What's real is what I can do today. Step two is stay real. Tell God how you feel. Pray to him, not the filtered version, the real one. Hey, God, I'm disappointed. I'm scared. I feel lost. We serve a God that's so big and sometimes we feel like he can't handle our emotions, but I'm gonna tell you right now that God can handle your emotions. Whether you're sad, upset, angry, disappointed, he can handle all of those things. So speak to him, talk to him. Be real with him. Three is redirect when you feel the urge to numb the pain. Pause, ask, what am I really craving? Am I craving peace or am I craving pleasure? And number four is stay in the word, run to the word before you run to anything else. Make sure that you're seeking God in this time. Let me pray for you. God, I'm frustrated. I don't know why this has happened, and I don't feel like you're close to me right now, but I want to trust you again. So help me focus on today. Help me to find comfort in you and not in my distractions, not in my coping mechanisms. Help me believe you are still working, heal not just my body, but my faith. Amen. Guys, if this encouraged you today, share it with another athlete who needs to hear this. And if you're still trying to figure out how to balance faith in sport, I'm gonna let you know right now that you're not alone. Keep showing up. Keep trusting God. And remember, defeat is optional when your hope is in Christ. I'm Ronnie Baker and I'll see you in the next one.