MLB Star Charlie Blackmon Dedicates Faith to Successful Career

Colorado Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon demonstrates both! The 4-time All-Star spent his entire 14-year Major League career with the same team, leaving a distinction of franchise achievements while only reaching the postseason twice. With his retirement, he stays present in the moment while looking ahead and not glaring at the past, stating, “Without faith, without foundation, I don’t know how one can succeed in baseball or in life.”
 
Question: “How much of what you do is intentional?”                     
 
Charlie Blackmon: “Oh, great question! I do go out of my way to be deliberate. I don't want to look up in the future and say, ‘oh, why am I here?’ - I went with the flow, the path with the least resistance and feel like I’ve wasted opportunities. I’ve alive! I’m healthy! Blessed with a family! I want to be deliberate and make choices that are going to help me and the people around me, hopefully lead to greater good!”                      
 
Question:  “Ultimately room for only one winner. What is the unseen, unvalued benefit of non-winning?”
 
Charlie Blackmon:  “Yeah (laugh)! Baseball’s an incredible sport. I do think it’s a sport that I find myself relating to life because of the failures associated with the game, right? The best players still fail seventy-percent of the time. Tom, I’ll tell you this, but this is also what I tell the 8-year old team I speak to – how you deal with failure is way more important than how straight your path was to start with. We haven’t always had a winning record and to be honest – a lot of our years have been – character building years.”
 
Question:  “Scripture talks about how long-suffering produces perseverance, produces character, produces hope.  Charlie, where does that hope for you come?”
 
Charlie Blackmon:  “If you don’t have any faith, if you don’t have a greater purpose or a foundation that will fall when shaken. You’re not going to understand, you’re not going to have any clarity, you’re going to have spend your life – and still be – in the dark.”
 
Question:  “So as a recreational property owner, you’re studying habitat management. Where’s the greatest beauty when natural resources, humanity, wildlife coexist?”
 
Charlie Blackmon:  “I’ve been able to purchase some property. It’s part of a conservation program, so it’s going to remain wild.  A place I really enjoy spending time and I feel very connected to God when I’m there. I’m surrounded by the nature itself and I begin to appreciate all the things that I’m seeing - fabric, mesh of soil, plants, insects, birds, animals that all fit together in a way that only God can make things work. You know, I really like putting a little bit of responsibility on myself to improve that. Helps the habitat, I think it’ll help the animals. I think me being able to see how things are interconnected is a way to help me feel small again and give me a better perspective – you, know, humble hopefully!”
 
Question:  “Is there ways do you think, that the church at-large, the body of Christ, could learn from that co-existence?
 
Charlie Blackmon:  “I think its really important for me to look at someone else and say ‘they’re worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven and Jesus died for them also. Anytime you have a collection of people, concentration of people, you’re going to have human nature seep in. Iron sharpens iron – I think it’s a place where you can find someone to hold you accountable, you can be surrounded by people who are gonna make you better – I think the church is obviously a great place to be.”
 
Question:  “What do you feel is growing extinct in our culture and relationships?”
 
Charlie Blackmon:  “Wow! I, I worry about what life is going to be like for my kids. Smart phones and screens in their faces all the time and people are losing are losing the face-to-face connection. There’s going to be less deep rooted relationships. We’ve got social media and we’ve got influencers and it’s really easy to look at someone and say ‘wow, they’ve got it all together and I can’t relate to them because my life is so much harder and I struggle with this and this and these people don’t struggle with anything’. I think that’s false! Comparison is your enemy! Don’t compare yourself to what you see necessarily and I think that’s the importance of having those face-to-face relationships and understanding that what you’re going through is not unique to you.”
 
Question:  “Going outside and finding His Presence. There’s just something raw and real about that.”
 
Charlie Blackmon:  “To know that Jesus Christ had a heart of like, flipping the money changers tables, living in the wilderness, had a very wild heart so that speaks to me more so than the stereotypical, super straight-edge. It’s just hard for me to feel like I can be that person but I can embrace the wild at heart mentality.
 
Question:  “And Charlie He could probably turn a single into a triple too. He could round those bases pretty well!”
 
Charlie Blackmon: “(Chuckle) I think Jesus Christ would probably hit a curve ball, that’s for sure.”
 
Question: “What comes as wonder of who Jesus Christ is?”
 
Charlie Blackmon:  “I’ve noticed as I get older I’m surprised less and less. And so that’s something that I have to deliberately make choices to seek His heart.   And me as a best father, as a best husband I can be starts with that foundation. If I’m not continuing to build that I think it’s going to ultimately be a failure for me but then the people that are depending on me. And I don’t want to ever feel like I’m falling into complacency with my relationship with Jesus.”