Having played college baseball at Baylor, David Murphy was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 2003 and spent the next three plus years with six different minor league teams before being called up for his major league debut at Fenway Park. He hit safely in his first at bat, beginning an everyday battle of balancing a high-profile, performance-based career with his personal identity.

A subsequent trade to the Texas Rangers gave Murphy the opportunity for more playing time, drawing even more attention as the Rangers captured the 2010 American League Championship and advanced to baseball’s biggest stage—the World Series.

How does David handle the balance between his work and his identity?  What keeps him from being defined by those pressure-packed moments of a career instead of who he is? In the battle against living a life of confidence or being fearful of the pressure, David has picked confidence, but not in himself. Rather a faith that sustains him better than clutch performance.

I want to win and I want to succeed. I am passionate about the game of baseball and when you are passionate about something, you desire to be successful. I’ve lived baseball since pretty much the day I was born. I’ve loved it since I was 2 or 3 years old. It would be great if everyone knew me as David Murphy the all star, or David Murphy the World Series champion. I would love to be all those things and everything that comes with them; but if I set my priorities straight, I would love to be looked at as David Murphy, the man of God.

I pray during the national anthem before each game and one of the things that I pray is that I am playing for His glory. Baseball is a difficult game and it can drive you crazy. It can create a lot of worry, but in the end there is confidence in Him or there is fear, and I pick the confidence in Him.

I don’t have to worry about going 0 for 4 or having a terrible game or being in a slump, because that’s not the big picture or the most important thing. God blessed me with this talent for a reason, and the game of baseball should be my ministry. Why not use every opportunity you can to spread the word?

A lot of people come to Jesus because they are at crossroads in their lives or something devastating happens, but that wasn’t the case for me.  I just knew I had a hole in my heart and I figured out that the only thing that could fill that void was Jesus.  At first I thought my testimony was my story about how I was saved and that night and praying the prayer; but the more I grow in Christ, the more I realize that my testimony is my life.

My name is David Murphy and I am Second.

Click the image below for David's message: