Josh Lindblom

Recently, Albert Pujols, the former first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, became the second highest paid player in baseball history. Pujols signed a contract with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for 254 million dollars over the next ten years. That's 25.4 million a year, or $488,461.54 a week before taxes. Presumably, they will not be living from paycheck to paycheck, as many of us do. Whether Albert or any other athlete is worth that is fodder for another column, and to be honest, Albert and his wife Dede are both strong Christians, and have been very generous with their funds in the St. Louis area. At least, I have not heard Albert use the lame excuse some athletes give that "he had to think of his family first." That kind of money would take care of a lot of families for a long time. Ironically, I was recently in the Dominican Republic, near the neighborhood where Albert grew up in the capitol city of Santo Domingo, and have seen the results of the Pujols' giving back substantially.

Josh Lindblom is a major league pitcher at the other end of the scale. He is a 6'5", 240 pound, right-handed pitcher from Lafayette, Indiana, who made his major league debut on June 1, 2011 with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Josh is also a Christian, and just as anxious to give back, even though he is at the bottom of the major league pay scale. He and his wife, Aurielle, have formed a foundation though he has less than one year of major league experience. A foundation to disburse funds isn't unusual, but most players do it after they have two Mercedes in the garage, and enough funds for the education of their unborn child.

Josh says, "People will see that our faith in Jesus Christ is at the forefront of this foundation, and to honor Him is what we want to do with it." He also says, "I think that the gifts God has blessed me with, If I don't use those to help others, it would be wasting the gifts that he has given me." Josh and Aurielle, married less than a year, have already established a relationship with the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, and are seeking ways to help the less fortunate in the Lafayette area. They seek other ways to help the less fortunate.

As a player, Josh has a bright future. In 2005, the magazine, Baseball America, called him the best high school prospect in Indiana. The Houston Astros offered young Josh a contract to play baseball, but Lindblom turned them down to attend the University of Tennessee on a baseball scholarship. He didn't feel mature enough to handle the stress that comes with playing every day in the low minors. Josh eventually transferred from Tennessee back home to Purdue, then signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2008. He had some immediate success in the minors, but it was in 2010 that God revealed himself in a unique way.

Growing up in a solid Christian home, his faith was always something that he had put first in his life. But in 2010, he began to struggle at Albuquerque, the Dodgers highest minor league team, and his faith began to waver. One day, he received a new pair of cleats from the team, and was getting them ready to wear. He set them on the team foul line and walked away. When he came back, there was a crumpled piece of paper in the toe of the shoe. It was a page torn from a small Bible. The page was from Hebrews 11, sometimes called God's Hall of Fame. It lists verse by verse, Biblical characters, who put their faith in God, unsure of the future. Josh says, "It was God's way of coming down and hitting me on the head, and saying, 'Your faith needs to come first. I need to be the forefront of your life.'" Josh still doesn't know where the paper came from. The Lindbloms display the paper in a glass case, as if it were a prized memento from a game. "You see hot dog wrappers and other trash," says Josh, "but you never see a crumpled up page from the Bible. It's very rare that God gives you a sign like that. It's something that couldn't be ignored." As a result, Josh and Aurielle are dedicating their lives to living out their faith. The verse outlined on the foundation webpage says it all, "Look after each other, so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God." (Hebrews 12:15)