Something Spiritual Sports
Focusing people on Christ through the testimony of Christian athletes and coaches. Support this podcast
Something Spiritual Sports
Set, Serve, Spike! Serah's Spiritual Journey in pro volleyball and in life.
Ever wondered how faith and sports intersect in the life of a professional athlete? Our latest episode features an inspiring conversation with Serah, a trailblazing rookie on the professional beach volleyball circuit. As she recounts her journey from college athlete to pro, Serah shares how her spiritual beliefs shape her approach to the game. With mentors like her father and coach guiding her path, she navigates the challenges and triumphs of her career, all while keeping her faith at the forefront. Serah opens up about using her platform to glorify God, drawing strength from verses like Romans 8:28 and Psalm 115:1, and finding resilience through her faith-driven perspective on the court.
In the second half of the episode, we dive into personal stories of faith and redemption. I share how life's trials during college deepened my Christian commitment, while my friend reveals their return to faith during a transformative mission trip to Costa Rica. Reflecting on the 'prodigal son' experience, we explore themes of growth, forgiveness, and unyielding divine love. We wrap up on a lighter note by discussing our shared love for volleyball and our hope to inspire the next generation to embrace sports for their holistic benefits. Whether you're a sports enthusiast or on your own faith journey, this episode promises encouragement and inspiration.
Hello, today I have Sarah and she's a professional volleyball player and this is her story. So what's it like playing professional volleyball?
Speaker 2:It's been really, really cool getting to play professional beach volleyball, especially after college. I think it's a really good experience because I get to really just travel and see new places and meet new people, partnerships and all that good stuff. It's been a blessing, like this whole past year, my rookie season. It started off pretty slow, honestly, and I like to think that God really just he likes to show up in ways that only he can get the credit, and that's exactly what happened. I feel like all of my successes this past season just had his hand in it and it was really really cool to see and I learned a lot and I'm looking forward to the next seasons.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So what's that like being a rookie, Like how's that? Is there like any hazing or is there anything?
Speaker 2:No, no, it's more so. Just it's like going in with you know that underdog or no accolade, everything like that. It's really just kind of kicking the door in and seeing how you do against those high level players. Yeah, it's a lot. It was definitely a learning process. It's a different. It's a different game than college, for sure.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice. So how do you use your platform and as a professional volleyball player, to give God glory.
Speaker 2:So I mean, that is how I think that's just how it should be done as a, as any pro athlete, because at the end of the day, it was. It was a learning process for me and it still is, and it still is. But at the end of the day, we really don't deserve any glory, you know, as a, as a sentence of Adam, we're just in our fallen nature. But once I understood that this was just a gift, that being an athlete and everything that comes with it is something that God allowed me to do and I'm so grateful for it really went uphill because he's the only one that actually does deserve the glory. So, without it being for pursuit of my own greatness, but to show the world how good he is, it's been awesome because even if you fail by human standpoints, like you're not failing anymore because you're doing it for right reasons and it's just, it's super rewarding to get to do that.
Speaker 2:So it like it sounds like even if you mess up, like say, you still feel like you're giving glory to God, you can't mess up his plan of your eye and if you're doing it with right intentions, he knows what's best for you and he does know what needs to happen, and I think that when he promises to give you the desires of your heart and your heart is in line with his will that will happen. You know, it is a lot of reflection and little steps for glorifying him and making sure that it's not selfish motive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, like in Matthew 6, 33, seek first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness. Exactly. And all these things will be added unto you.
Speaker 2:If you seek the kingdom, it just it makes your way of living so much easier. Anyway, those losses don't feel like much because you know that he's in control. You know Paul says to run the good race and and that's all we're doing as athletes. You know you show up, uh, you work hard, and that's all we're doing as athletes. You know you show up, you work hard. I heard a football player on an interview the other day say that you know the soldiers prepare for battle, but you know the battle's already won and God is in control. And that's true. That's all we do is we prepare and we continue to work hard with a sense of gratefulness, and we just keep going. We seek the kingdom.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly Now. Do you have a mentor that you look up to, or somebody that's like important in your life, or something like that?
Speaker 2:Spiritually, it's definitely my father, okay. Spiritually, it's definitely my father, okay. I'm so, so, so, so blessed to have such a well-read and faith-filled father figure. In the faith and his relationship with Christ is one that I can only dream of having one day. So spiritually, yeah, only dream of having one day. Uh, so spiritually, yeah. And then for volleyball, it's for sure, my coach, who, I'm also blessed, is a, is a friend of Jesus and so he's able to guide me in this sport very, very well and he's seen it all and and I trust him and he's he's like another father figure. I always compare it as, like my dad is the more of the soft spoken one, and then my coach is definitely more of the yelling, like you know, being tough on me, kind of love.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, and I think you said you had a hard time.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you mentioned one, but, like, what's a verse you use in your sport to encourage somebody? Like, is there a specific verse? I love it because you have to remember that it is very intentional, that it says all things. It doesn't say good things, it doesn't say bad things, it doesn't say something. It says all things work together for good to bring glory to God. And when you're going through those hard times, that's what I try and remember is all things. And a verse that is just near and dear to me is psalm 115 1. And that is not to us, lord, not to us, but to your name, be the glory because of your love and faithfulness. And so, uh, me and my best friend's podcast, the forest glory podcast for christian athletes is really is based off of that and it's really cool. Kind of tying in with with Roman day 28 is.
Speaker 2:So when I was 19, I went to my freshman year of college, I got a piece of that verse, psalm 115, as a tattoo. You know, because I was 19 and I was just excited with all the freedom I had, I guess, but I just had a tattoo called For His Glory and I had no idea that that phrase was going to mean so much to me. It meant a lot to me when I got it, but it has become my way of living and it's so cool that it was almost like God was foreshadowing that, because when I got, that tattoo is super spontaneous and I had a lot of other different ideas of what I wanted and that's what it ended up being and now I have a whole you know podcast surrounded by it and it's really cool.
Speaker 1:It's funny because when you say romans 828, that's my favorite, one of my favorite verses. It's and and I'm I'm kind of weird with like numbers and stuff so like I'll see 828, like at the, the time is 828. I don't like remind me of it, and it's usually I like the perfect time, because I'll be like thinking something'll like remind me of it, and it's usually at like the perfect time, because I'll be like thinking something and then I'll see it, and then I'll be like yo, like this is God speaking to me?
Speaker 1:because it's funny that when you look for him he's just so obviously everywhere yeah, yeah, it's like, it's just funny because, like, my favorite verse is probably ephesians 2, verse 8 through 9, what is, by grace you've been saved through faith is not yourselves. As a gift of god, knocked thy work so that no man shall boast. But that verse 10 talking about, like, how we are his masterpiece, freedom for great works in christ jesus, like that, honestly, that has become part of the verse and I've loved, and I love both, all that, that whole little section. So like because the, because I feel like that verse speaks to me as far as, like you know, like god's jesus saves us, and then also like we're created to do great things for god, for sure, for sure we're his chosen, yeah, so, um, so who I? You might have said this already who do you look up to the most in the sports world and why? I think you kind of said it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in the sports world, your coach, it's really my coach. It's been this whole past year. So if I train four days a week and there's 365 days in a year, you know he's gotten the majority of my past year and it has been an extremely like, rewarding experience to just get to constantly, you know, wake up four days a week with this purpose of training in this sport and with his guidance, it's been really, really cool nice.
Speaker 1:Um. So as a christian, I mean there's a lot of christian athletes in sports. Like what does it mean to you to be like a christian athlete? Like what that?
Speaker 2:It's just a gift. I like the Christian life is really just. It's a series of circumstances that God leads you to and and he is, you know, gracious enough to to have granted us free will and it's been. It's just so cool that in this lifetime before eternity, that this is what I get to do. You know, like I always knew that I wanted to to go big, like as a kid I got super hyper, fixated on a lot of things and actually volleyball was the first sport I ever hated.
Speaker 2:The first time I tried volleyball I did not like it, I was not very good at it and I played every other sport to come back full circle. And it's really cool because it's not, like I said before, for my own personal glory, like I said before, for my own personal glory, but what I've learned in the small wins in my career, it's just so full of love and God's grace and it's been. I don't even have like words for it. It's just so. I'm so, so grateful that this is the life that God has allowed me to live. And you know, at the end of the day the ball will have to be put down eventually and I don't know if that's going to be in my lifetime per se, for my choice or because the kingdom comes, but it doesn't define me, and that's. Another cool thing is that this is just one adventure that God has led me to and allowed me to work with for now.
Speaker 1:Now, do you have any aspirations or goals of going to the Olympics?
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So, and that's been my I don't know how else to explain it and I do believe that God put it on my heart. But I always wanted to set the bar high so that, even if I don't reach certain goals, I at least gave it everything I had. You know, I tell the girls and boys that I coach all the time everything I had. You know I tell the girls and boys that I coach all the time. I said don't limit yourself just because you think, you think that it might be meant for someone else. You know, just if you set the bar high, then you're always going to to have room for improvement. And so I do want to play in Los Angeles in 2028, and that's the, that's the goal and I have to do a follow-up interview for that one.
Speaker 2:I would love to. I would play, too, the team that I have supporting me right now and, uh, like all of the, the little steps that I'm learning it, you know we lead up to it. I'm'm really, really excited for this pursuit and yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know if this could be an encouragement to you or not, but I actually interviewed an Olympic athlete and he was a swimmer for Lebanon and he was the only athlete for Lebanon because it's a really small country, the only athlete for Lebanon because it's a really small country. So, like he, I interviewed him and it's like you want to, you obviously want to pursue this too. So it's like I just like, as a like, because I just to let you know that I've known somebody that has done that and it's it's definitely possible. So I don't know that encouragement.
Speaker 2:I mean the possibility, wait, oh, I mean the possibility isn't uh, isn't really what is like a concerning thing to me? Because I I do believe that you can put your mind to anything and if you do what you say you're gonna do, I, my prayer to God is always that if, if I do need to put the ball down, that I'm not stubborn about it, that he basically just lets me know and I'll say, okay, you know, that's it, where do you want me next? But in terms of this sport is difficult as it has gotten, because I had some I definitely had some downs with it in college. He unfailingly let me keep playing, because I've already I've said I've had that prayer multiple times where just stole crushing moments throughout the career. I was like God.
Speaker 2:You know if, if you want this door closed, like like, please just close it, just let me know. You know I would like to God. You know if, if you want this door closed, like, like, please just close it, just let me know. You know I would like to know, because I don't want to ever have to be, you know, getting injured to understand that it's not for me. You know I want to do it with full submission to him. Right, but he's done nothing. Every time that I got to that low point it's like he swung open another door. So it's really just made me kind of realize that, at least for now, he wants me in this sport so that's cool that you're.
Speaker 1:You're kind of like up it's, like it's up to god, you know, like it, yeah, it should be it, I know, and some people hold things on to something so hard, you know because as humans, we don't like things we can't control, but we also don't see the perspective from the kingdom.
Speaker 2:You know, there are, you know, many stories where, if God told you what was going to happen and what it was going to take, yeah, it's scary. It is scary, but he knows what we need, you know. You know who karen dobbs is right. Yeah, her story is incredible, but even she admitted at an fca uh, was it the guide of champions?
Speaker 2:no, we just. She came to fiu a lot and because she was in the miami area and he got to here, she's a hurricane. Yeah, it's a really cool story. If anyone listening to this hasn't heard of her Cameron Dobbs, you can look her up and her testimony is awesome. But even that night she admitted she said if I knew that it was going to take what it went through to get to where I was today, it would have been much easier to say God, can you please choose someone else to do this? But he doesn't give us more than we can handle, and that's a promise.
Speaker 1:So and so how long have you been a Christian for?
Speaker 2:long have you been a Christian for? So I was raised in the faith, um, I, I gave my life to Christ at I was eight when I did, and then I was baptized when I was nine and it was very much like I was very much, um, you know, self-aware enough to make the decision on my own. It's a very sweet memory for my dad because the altar call happened and I told him, I said I want to do it and I want to do it alone, and so that was really cool. But I want to say that my story in the faith didn't start being built until about sophomore year of college. And I say that because early on in my life, uh, middle school, high school, I wasn't really getting tested much. Uh, I knew who god was, I knew who jesus was I believe that what he did was but I hadn't been put up against any real, you know, tough decisions, trials, yeah, trials, all that stuff. You know just like, oh, it's easy to walk in a straight line. You know I'm surrounded by Christian people.
Speaker 2:And then those first two years of college was really a series of trying not good things in the world, looking for satisfaction, coming back to Christ, because there was no satisfaction to be found anywhere but through him it was such a testament of his grace for me because once I hit that wall it was, you know, open arms, and I'm not saying like, in that exact moment I was like good again, you know, walking the straight line. It had been two years of, you know, rowdy behavior. It took some time, but now I had that connection with him and that sense of conviction. And there are things, even to this day, where I have on my heart that I would like to get better at. And it weighs on you, once you have that relationship with him, because conviction is there.
Speaker 2:But I'm just happy knowing that the conviction is there, you know, because for those two years of bad decisions I wasn't even consulting him with any of the decision. I was just like you know, I know what I'm doing, I know what I want, I'm going to go for this. I can try and control. This been such a relief because it's like I can trust him, I can ask him for guidance and conviction and and we just keep getting better, uh, as I keep getting better as a person, as a Christian, because of it, because now I have that relationship with him, to go to him with these decisions.
Speaker 1:I had a similar um, like, so like I was pretty much like here. You were saying like I was very I was fine up until like high school, and like high school, like a like a cousin died of a drug overdose, uh, multiple deaths in the family, just like different, just so many different things just hit me and it kind of like took me away from God and so like in college I hung out with the wrong crowd, I didn't do anything crazy but like definitely wasn't living for God and I took a missions trip to Costa Rica to bring my life back to Christ and that's kind of my story is like I went through, like I go through this prodigal son story and then like it's just so you beneficial and really is it?
Speaker 2:really I'm not saying to anyone listening that you should go and try and, you know, be dumb, but I'm just saying, like it, the prodigal son, you know story is, it is us, it, yeah, like whether, whether you get saved later or early in life, like we were created, we were knit together in our mother's womb by him and, uh, you know, it's whenever we're ready to come back and lay our cars on the table and just say I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking, and he will unfailingly take you in every single time.
Speaker 2:Right you know, and you, you start to be better because of that sense of gratefulness. You know, not because we believe that works is going to get us our ticket into heaven, but because it's like someone loved me so much to forgive me to. You know, pay the price on the cross, and because of that I wanted to continue to live for him yeah, and also my friend.
Speaker 1:You met Mark the other day. He said um, doesn't matter how far you're got, you think you've gone. God is always one step behind you. Yep, and it's like you know, like you could go, like you went off. You did your own thing in college. You did, but as, no matter how far he went, I was going to come back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he led it to all the scenarios, uh, and I do think that I said, if I didn't have that experience in college, I don't think I would be nearly as equipped to speak on the gospel today, because I am speaking from a story of grace, you know.
Speaker 1:Right, right. So I guess you said, you liked other sports. Yeah, so like what other sports? Yeah, so like what other sports did you like besides volleyball?
Speaker 2:I played everything growing up. I just I liked to try everything I was always signed up for like after school intramural sports while my parents were out. I liked basketball. I was pretty solid at it. You know, that was like the third grade. Football was actually the first sport that I learned. Oh, flat football, I never played. Oh well, I did play slack I was young, but it was more of like. My dad taught me how to throw and catch very early.
Speaker 1:Maybe you could play flat football for the Olympics.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to pursue any other sport in the Olympics Volleyball but I just like knowing I want my kids in the future to also get to experience all the sports because I think that it's good and it gives you perspective on other sports. You know the biomechanics and everything and it's just good for you socially, culturally and all of that stuff.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah. Well, what you all you said is like a lot of really good stuff was like is there anything else like you might want to add, like anything that you might want to say to people, like as a professional volleyball player or as a Christian, like to encourage somebody, or I just think that to anyone listening, listening that is, uh, has doubts.
Speaker 2:To anyone listening that has doubts over pursuing a dream, I really, if their intentions are right, there's really nothing that God isn't capable of doing in your life. You know, and if I do make it to the Los Angeles games, because that's where God wants me, it's just going to be a testament of you know, philippians 4, 6 and it. If I ever reach the podium, you know, if I get to say you know, I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength, that's gonna be exactly what that means, because I would have had no business from my height, from my past accolades, it wouldn't make sense. It would only be Christ that got me there and the efforts that he allowed me to continue to pursue, because it will be nothing short of a miracle from the human standpoint.
Speaker 1:To make the Olympics.
Speaker 2:To medal.
Speaker 1:To medal.
Speaker 2:To medal, yeah, and I'm not saying that I think it to to metal, to metal, to metal, yeah, Because and I'm not saying that I, I, I think it's, you know, horribly impossible. But I will say that it's going to be a heck of a story that God has built brick by brick, and uh, and that is the goal and that is what I'll continue to pursue in his name. So awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much, of course, joining. Thank you for having me. This is sarah o'keefe, o'keefe, o'keefe, okay, o'keefe, and uh, this was her pot, the podcast about her life, and uh, thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time bye.
