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Word UP with Webb
Daily Devotion for Teens and Students
Word UP with Webb
Beyond the Diamond w/ Bray Goode: How Faith Prepares You for Life's Biggest Innings
What does authentic faith look like for a high school athlete facing peer pressure and life's big transitions? Alexandria High School senior baseball star Bray Goode opens up about his journey from religious performance to genuine faith.
Bray, a gifted pitcher headed to the University of South Alabama on a baseball scholarship, candidly shares how he moved beyond "checking religious boxes" to experiencing the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. "I got good at it," he admits about wearing a spiritual mask before his authentic conversion five years ago. This refreshing honesty reveals the challenges many church-raised young people face in developing personal faith.
With remarkable maturity, Bray discusses navigating the often-challenging environment of high school sports teams. "If you're not joining in throwing the dart, sometimes you become the target," he explains, detailing moments when standing for his beliefs has positioned him as an outsider. Yet these experiences have strengthened his resolve as he prepares for college life, where he'll face new temptations while separated from his support system.
Perhaps most powerful is Bray's advice to younger athletes: "It's not always ponies and rainbows. You're going to screw up and slip up. But the main thing is knowing where you are in Christ." This grace-filled perspective acknowledges the reality of struggle while emphasizing that our identity remains secure regardless of failures.
Whether you're a student athlete, a parent, or someone navigating your own faith journey, Bray's story offers a compelling testament to the power of authentic belief that transcends social pressure and athletic achievement. Listen now and be inspired to live boldly for what matters most.
Good morning guys and welcome to Word Up. I am here on this Saturday morning with Bray Good, a senior at Alexandria High School. Star of the baseball team got a mean arm on him and y'all seen him play. I'm sure a great pitcher, great athlete, but, most importantly, a great child of God. And I did not know Bray at all until last year.
Speaker 1:I started meeting with the Alexandria baseball team and going to the FCA huddles at Alexandria middle school and Bray was kind of just the face of FCA. He was the one that was organizing it for the baseball team and he joined me every Thursday morning and still does at Alexandria Middle School just to pour into those students that are looking up to him. And so as we've started doing the student spotlight and bringing somebody in so that you could just hear their hearts and what God has done in their life, I thought there's nobody better to bring in than Bray, because I've just really been excited to see how God uses him and how bold he is in his faith. So, bray, thank you for joining us today. Glad to have you here on the podcast, glad to be here. So, bray, let's jump straight in. Tell some people a little bit about you as far as you've, do you play any sports besides baseball? No, sir.
Speaker 2:I only play baseball. That's about it.
Speaker 1:And you played it your whole life.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:And what positions do you play?
Speaker 2:I mainly play pitcher and first base.
Speaker 1:Pitcher and first base. What are your plans after high school? So you've only got a few months left at Alexandria High School and what are your plans going forward?
Speaker 2:So I'm planning on going and attending the University of South Alabama and I'm going there to pitch. I'm a baseball team and I'll probably think about entering to business as my major.
Speaker 1:Outstanding, Outstanding. So Bray, like I said, he is an awesome athlete, awesome pitcher has an opportunity to go play at the next level, which I know is a huge accomplishment, something that he's worked his whole life for. But even greater than that is his calling that God has on his life. So, Bray, how long have you been a follower of Christ?
Speaker 2:I've probably been five years, four years somewhere around there.
Speaker 1:And where were you whenever you first felt God call you to a relationship with Him?
Speaker 2:I was at a man's conference with Rick from Rick and Bubba, and he was calling for people to accept Christ in their life and I felt led to, so I raised my hand and took the next step.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That is awesome, and I'm assuming that you've probably been raised in church your entire life, have you not?
Speaker 2:I have my whole life.
Speaker 1:A lot like me. That's a lot like my testimony. We've got good parents, we're raising a good family, we know what it means to go to church all the time and we even probably, I would say you would agree you learned how to put the mask on and to check all the boxes to look like a Christian, did you not? Oh, I got good at it.
Speaker 2:Very good at it.
Speaker 1:And I'm sure all the girls in high school and all their parents thought, oh Bray, good, he's just such a great kid. And you know they look at us and they think we got it all together. But there comes the place in our lives when God says all right, it's time to take off the mask, show people who you really are and truly follow me. And so I'm glad that you were willing and I know that's a hard step to take, especially when we've been raised in church and we've been faking it for so long, but I'm glad that you made that decision. So what would you say is the biggest thing that changed in your life? What's the biggest thing from the time that you took the fake off and truly gave your life to the Lord? What changed?
Speaker 2:I'd say being filled with the Holy Spirit. I just felt like my whole mood changed, my point in life. I felt like it all changed.
Speaker 1:I try and get through day to day, and now I feel like I have a more and deeper meaningfully purpose to try to go and spread the word and try to get as many people as I can across and Bray, I didn't know you before your relationship with Christ, but I know what I see in my own life and what I see in other students' lives, and that fake can only carry you so far. You can go to church on Wednesdays and you can go to church on Sundays and you can do all those things, but you can't take the stand that you take and you can't want to be a part of a middle school ministry and you can't want to make sure that somebody's speaking to your brothers on the team. We don't take those stands when we're faking it. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to really push us in that direction, and so I can definitely see the boldness that God has put in you Now.
Speaker 1:I know that, being around a group of guys and being on a sports team, that oftentimes there's sin in the camp, right, I mean, it's just natural. We've got a lot of foul language, we've got a lot of locker room talk, things like that, and so just tell our other students that are listening. Have there ever been times where it's been tough for you to maintain your stand for Christ? Just in that environment where you just kind of feel like an outcast when you're standing for God?
Speaker 2:There's been many, many times. At those points you get in there and they start talking about this random stuff and you're really having to stand firm because you know if you say anything against it, you know you kind of get a weird look and you know they start coming at you now you know. So sometimes it does get kind of difficult.
Speaker 1:If you're not joining in throwing the dart, sometimes you become the target Is that not right.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, oh yeah, it's tough, but you know what, honestly, you become the target. Is that not right? Oh yeah, oh yeah it's tough, but you know what, honestly, in the grand scheme of things, to be the target for a moment is much better than to be the target forever. You know, and God is going to bless those times and those hard times that you face, and so I want to talk about. You're about to step into a whole new world. You go to South Alabama.
Speaker 1:I went this past weekend. I took our kids to the Alabama-Tennessee baseball game in Tuscaloosa and man, we were sitting next to the bullpen. And just in the moment that I'm sitting next to the bullpen, I'm going to be honest with you. It was just filthy, like it was absolutely filthy, right.
Speaker 1:And there was a time when I was in college and I was probably one of those ones that parents were pulling their kids away from my conversations because I did not accept Christ at the age that you did and I wasn't living for the Lord at that time in my life. That you did and I wasn't living for the Lord at that time in my life. And so not passing judgment on those guys, but you're about to go into a lost world. You know, I recently went on a trip to Africa where it was 97% unreached and people didn't know what sin was and all the things. Well, we know what it is here, but I'm telling you, the college world, the college scene, is a lot of lost folks and you're going to face challenges that you've never faced before. So how do you think your time here at Alexandria and your walk with Christ has prepared you to be able to reach lost people coming from all over to play baseball?
Speaker 2:You know I'd say there's going to be a lot of stuff that I see down there that I haven't seen or heard or been a part of. But I think being on my baseball team and being at, I guess, a school that's public has kind of prepared me in a way that I feel like I will hear, you know I'll be around the same stuff that I've always been around. So it's, I guess it's just reassuring to know that what I've been facing I can continue to face it with, you know, the full faith that God will continue to be with me, because I've already lived it and I've already been through it. So of course, there'll be new challenges and new things that I have to approach, because and me down there by myself, with a whole bunch of other guys that are down there by themselves, so there will be a lot of new challenges out to face, but I'm ready for it.
Speaker 1:I believe you are and you know just for some of our other people that are listening and the things that they're dealing with like I know there's going to be a time where you're going to get down there and you know what you may go through a slump, you may be on a stretch where you feel like you're not playing up the standard and and you feel lonely, and so you've got all these guys around you and the only way to to really fit in with them hey, we're all going out to party on a Friday night. Everybody's going out, we're all going to get drunk, we're going to have a good time, and here I am. I feel like I'm. I'm not producing, I'm not of the team. So now do I stay back in my apartment by myself or do I go out and engage with these guys? Or maybe there's going to be a bunch of pretty girls that are coming to the game, that see O'Brie Good on the mound throwing the heat, and they want to go out on a date on Friday night, and so a lot of those challenges come in your way.
Speaker 1:But I truly believe that if you will stand firm, stay in God's word. You've already taken the stands here, just like what we talked about. That locker room is a tough place and the challenges are going to get harder, but God has already put those in your life to show you that you can overcome. You don't need to fall to temptation, you don't need those things. You are a leader. He has designed you to be a leader and it is your job now to impact those lives at the next level. And so, even more than your opportunity to go and make South Alabama successful in baseball, I pray that you make South Alabama baseball successful in the kingdom, and so I know you're up to that challenge. And before we sign off here today, is there anything for that 7th and 8th grade baseball player that's coming up through Alexandria, welburn, sacs, all the schools around us that may be listening to this, even throughout the state? What advice would you give them to prepare themselves for the challenges that are coming?
Speaker 2:I think one of the main things is preparing themselves, understanding that they're going to mess up. Things are going to go bad. It's not always ponies and rainbows. You're going to screw up and you're going to slip up. Things are going to happen. But I think the main thing is knowing where you are in Christ, knowing that, even though you made the mistakes, there's a loving God right there waiting on you to turn back around and look at Him, and that, through it all, you've got to be strong in your faith and just trust in Him through it all.
Speaker 1:That is so good. You heard it right there from Bray Good, and I hope that all of our listeners will join me in praying for him in the next steps that he's taking, the next challenges that he's going to face, and for the students that have tuned in today. Know that even through the storms, even through the challenges, you can rely on God and no matter where you are, no matter who thinks it's not cool, standing for God is bigger than anything in this world. It's bigger than baseball. It's bigger than our friends. It is the most important thing. So dig into God's Word, make Him first and allow Him to use you wherever he sends you. Thank you for joining us, bray, and good luck to you on your next adventure. Thank you. Thank you, all right guys. I will see you back here Monday morning. Thank you for All right guys. I will see you back here Monday morning. Thank you for joining us.