Posted on 08/14/2016 12:03:06 PM PDT by doug from upland
Superstar swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, nearly committed suicide two years ago. His athletic prowess and success had brought him so much attention over the last decade that sports media nearly worshiped him as a kind of god, but Phelps was struggling to find peace in his heart.
He felt empty inside and sought to fill his pain with drugs and alcohol, which sent him into a downward spiral. In 2009 he was suspended from swimming for three months after a photograph of him using a bong went viral, but that didn’t stop him from partying and living on the edge. In fact, things got worse, culminating in his second DUI arrest in ten years.
Phelps was at his lowest of lows. In the days after his arrest, he isolated himself and kept on drinking.
He admitted in an interview with ESPN, “I had no self-esteem. No self-worth. I thought the world would just be better off without me. I figured that was the best thing to do — just end my life.”
His gold medals couldn’t console him and he had no purpose to keep on living.
Providentially, his family and friends convinced him to check-in at a rehab center and deal with his demons. At first he was reluctant to open up, but after some time he accepted his fate and started on the path of recovery.
Phelps brought with him the book The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. It had been given to him by former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, and he not only read it; he began to share it with fellow patients. This gave him the nickname at the rehab center of “Preacher Mike.”
He thanked Lewis for the book, saying, “Man this book is crazy! The thing that’s going on…oh my gosh…my brain, I can’t thank you freaking enough, man. You saved my life.” Phelps explained in an interview that the book, “turned me into believing there is a power greater than myself and there is a purpose for me on this planet.”
Athletes kiss their medals, which validate their hard work, but can never love them back. Media accolades are a fickle wind. The love that grounds faith helps restore perspective. In addition to finding faith during rehab, Phelps recognized that much of his unrest was due to the absence of his father for most of his life. His parents He thanked Lewis for the book, saying, “Man this book is crazy! The thing that’s going on…oh my gosh…my brain, I can’t thank you freaking enough, man. You saved my life.” Phelps explained in an interview that the book, “turned me into believing there is a power greater than myself and there is a purpose for me on this planet.”
Athletes kiss their medals, which validate their hard work, but can never love them back. Media accolades are a fickle wind. The love that grounds faith helps restore perspective. In addition to finding faith during rehab, Phelps recognized that much of his unrest was due to the absence of his father for most of his life. His parents were divorced when Phelps was nine and to fill that void he went to the pool. Once water had been conquered, the ache showed itself.
When it was time for Family Week at the rehab center, Phelps reconnected with his father and it proved to be a healing time for both. They hugged for the first time in years and the experience helped Phelps move forward.
A few months after rehab, Phelps asked his longtime girlfriend Nicole Johnson to marry him. Now engaged, their wedding is planned for after the Rio Olympics. Shortly after becoming engaged the two found out Nicole was pregnant, and the recent birth of their son was another turning point for Phelps.
After receiving his son in a warm blanket, Phelps cried. “I just kind of stood there,” he told ESPN, “I didn’t think I would be emotional, but it all just sort of hit me: ‘That’s our son.’ And you suddenly have this new appreciation for what love really is.”
With the new responsibility of a family, tonight’s race could be his last ever. Phelps has said that he plans to retire after Rio. However, he recently said in an interview, “To have our first-born be able to watch — I’ll say this, just in case I come back — my potential last Olympics. Just so you guys don’t beat me to death if I come back, I’m just going to say that: To have him watch the potential last races of my career is something I look forward to being able to share with him.”
By the grace of God Phelps was rescued from the pit and brought into life. Phelps may not be perfect, but his newfound Christian faith has given him a new direction. His success still puts him on a platform, and the media continues to worship him like a god, but this time Phelps seems to have a better sense of who he is in the grand scheme of things, and what really matters. He understands that gold medals – no matter how many one can accumulate – have no power to save.
FR has more than its share of God haters.
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>> “His good Christian values include a bastard child with an unmarried woman.” <<
Read your Bible!
Biblical marriage means taking the woman into your house.
It has no dealings with marriage licenses, nor government records.
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I don't know, and this article does nothing to inform us.
I’ll take the non-BLM Simone, please.
And you're so pure? Preachy self-righteous prigs give Christianity a bad name.
Didn’t read the article, then?
No longer accurate as she now has a bronze from one of the team fencing events. Just hate when libs rub our face in any fact that isn’t accurate to ten decimal places where they can spout any manure as gospel and nobody takes them to task for it. I know that graphic was true when it was created.
“Carnal Christians” give Christians a bad name.
I understand that hyper Dispys throw out the Old Testament, but I don’t see how they get around Acts 3:19-20, and Ephesians 2:8-10. Or Acts 2:38, or Acts 3:19, or Luke 13:3....
To follow Christ demands that you repent and humble yourself, trying day by day to improve; but always being grateful that our Mighty God forgives us our sins, because we cannot please Him by our imperfect actions. "All our righteous acts are like filthy rags" to God, whose perfection is greater than humans can imagine (Isaiah 64:6).
Neither judging others, whose journey is different than yours, nor bragging about your great Bible knowledge, will earn you salvation. "Rain falls on the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:45). "God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34).
Our Lord is looking for a contrite heart, not a boaster of human excellence in His eyes, because "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.Matthew 6
1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
With regard to Michael Phelps, he and his fiancee do intend to have a formal marriage ceremony after the Olympics, and knowing he could not spend time with her planning a wedding during the long months of training and competition, he nevertheless took her into his family. You see her standing there between his mother and her mother in many photos, hugging his mom when he won. Perhaps they had the baby baptized; you don't know. For all we know, they may have had a small marriage ceremony. Or, they may have felt it wise to delay because he was in the middle of competition and they want to be sure of how they will relate to each other as spouses and parents before setting up a household with a tiny infant—again, we don't know, and it's none of our business.
But one thing I do know for certain is that God loves that baby regardless of his parents. And we are called to be encouragers of new Christians, not to condemn them and tell them they're not good enough.
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