On the Path
Helping athletes keep a Christ centered life. Weekly episodes with athletes and coaches that are succeeding in their sport while remembering what is most important and keeping Jesus Christ at the center of their lives.
On the Path
Remember Your True Identity
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I talk to Mason Pitcher about the true identity as Christian athletes, what and who we need to remember as we prepare for big games or competitions. The Lord is by our side but we must remember him always and that we are sons and daughters of God.
Alright, welcome back everyone to another episode of On the Path, where we're here with another athlete every single week to talk about their beliefs and their faith in Jesus Christ and how that influences their everyday athletic performance. Thank you everyone for tuning in last week and listening to an episode, the episode with Mason Hunter and how he talked to us about the importance of just going out and playing and just focusing on that and also making sure that you have that structure in Jesus Christ and you're always focusing on him and whatever you're doing and trusting his plan that he has for you. This week, we're back here with another Mason. This week it's Mason Pitcher, and I'll take a little second to introduce him so we can all get to know him. Mason is from Bismarck, North Dakota, and he is currently a junior here at Southern Virginia University. He's on the tennis team and he is majoring in business finance. A fun fact about Mason is that he's a lefty in everything but tennis. That's pretty interesting. But welcome Mason. We're happy to have you here today. Glad to be here. Um we're gonna get started. I'll just start off with a question and have you kind of tell us what you think about it at first. But um, how do you balance your identity as an athlete with your identity as a Christian as well?
SPEAKER_00That's a good question. Um I mean, I I think one of the biggest things is that you're always representing Christ everywhere you go, especially when it comes to on uh court or on the field. So for me, representing Christ as an athlete is always knowing, I guess, what kind of image I'm putting off. I mean, yeah, it's it's good to be competitive but don't be cocky. It's good to take it serious but not come off as a mean person or as a as a bad person. So to balance that identity is always, yes, be competitive, use the talents I've been given, but also look out for others and still have a Christ-like attitude towards the other people that you're playing against or with.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Do you have any specific examples of times that you've been able to show your faith while you're in the middle of a match or before a competition, whatever it is?
SPEAKER_00Um, I think recently one that comes to mind was it wasn't during, it was just after the after the game. So I always like to try to be, well, not always like try to be but be nice to my opponents and talk to them afterwards on the tennis courts. After we shake hands, we talk a little bit. Um I I served a mission for for preaching the gospel to in Mexico, and I remember one time after a match, there's a guy that happened to be from where I was at, and we used to start talking, and he happened to be going through a little hard of a time, and I was able to talk to him in Spanish about just some things that I know as a Christian, yeah as a follower of Christ. And I think it was just cool to put those, even though we were from different areas and like different teams play against each other very seriously, we were able to share a moment and kind of bond closer as children of God rather than just athletes in that moment.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think that's a super cool experience. I think it's super awesome for um when athletes are when athletes are able to do that, just find those things outside of the specific sport to talk about to bond over, like you said, is children of God rather than tennis players. And I think that's super important because we see that sometimes we get caught up in our sport and it's just a lot, it's hard. And sometimes you just need that break, you just need to talk to someone, and typically you go outside of the sport to talk to someone about something else, whether it's the gospel or just anything in general, really, but being able to do that when you're on the court or after a match is I think that's something that's super important. And I mean, it was probably a good thing for him too. I mean, how often does he have the opportunity to speak Spanish here, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it w it was cool in the moment. It was it was you could tell he felt like a little I don't know if it was lost or homesick or or whatever it was, but just being able to talk to him, not only in Spanish, but just to comfort him was was cool in that moment.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, that's super cool, and that's definitely a great thing for us to to find those opportunities to be able to speak with those people and you know we see someone down and we know that they're still a child of God, so we gotta get that opportunity and go talk to them and make sure they remember that too.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um, but yeah, that's definitely a great opportunity and great experience, I'm sure that you had. And we'll it's a great example for everyone else to go out and do that as well, find those opportunities to serve others and to brighten someone's day. Um, how would you say your faith shapes your mindset going into a big match? Something probably the you think back a to your biggest match that you've had. And how does being a Christian, believing in Jesus Christ, how does that shape your mindset going into that game?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I mean, like any sport, going into a big match is my lot of tension, a lot of nerves. I mean, just knowing that he is looking after me is a big comfort, but just being able to say a prayer, being able to know that he'll be watching over me during it, it's is really comforting for me. And then of course, yeah, I'm gonna go in there, give my best and go for the win, but knowing that he's okay with my efforts helps me also calm myself down, knowing that yes, it's important, but at the end of the day, I'm I'm just playing, playing a sport. Yes, I want to win this 100% and be the show off the talents that he's giving me. Yeah, but it helps me just know that there's a lot more at stake than just winning the game, and that helps me bring out the best version of myself and playing because I'm a lot more relaxed, a lot more loose. I mean, like in many sports, but tennis, like if you get 10 stuff, you're gonna start making a lot of m mistakes, a lot of errors. Yeah. So it's it's cool that I can just play freely, knowing that I have support of him, support of my team, and everybody, just being able to do those tiny little, I guess, rituals you could say, or tiny little things before my match.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, for sure. I think I mean it's always helped me too. I've shared it before. Um, but in high school, I tried to get our team to start saying prayers before every single tournament that we had, and it ch it made a big difference at first. It was it was really cool to see because what we did is something that our school had never seen before. Is the first match we prayed, we went out and broke a school record. It's crazy. The next one we go out, we pray before the match, and we break the school record that we just barely broke. So it's like not saying that it was completely because we prayed, but it was a different mindset that we had going into it. And I definitely think having a faith-based mindset gives you a lot more relaxation going into a match, or it helps you feel more calm and know that you're not doing this alone. Exactly. Like you were given these skills and these talents, you've worked for it, and you just need to remember what's most important and who's always by your side through it, right? Yeah. And it's definitely a blessing for those Christian athletes out there to always remember that Jesus Christ is by your side and he's going to help you every step of the way no matter what. Um, but I definitely think, especially going into big games, it's important to have those pregame rituals where we are remembering Jesus Christ. And I think that's something unique here at Southern Virginia is that everyone has the I think almost every single team prays before every single game, match, competition, whatever it is, but it gives the teams that opportunity to remember Christ and remember what's right right before going into that big competition. And that definitely shapes what the outcome definitely could be if you remember that the entire game. Exactly. Um now kind of talking about being an elite athlete, right? Sometimes we get we're in this mode where a lot of people call it the flow state, right? Like you're just going and it's just like no one's stopping you. You're just gonna keep going no matter what. And sometimes you can pride starts to kick in. Yeah, right. Um, how do you guard yourself against pride when things are going well? When you're in that flow state when you're just you can't lose.
SPEAKER_00I think we've already touched on this theme a lot, and I think it might just be your recurring theme, especially in my life. But everything that I have and everything I do is not because of me, it's because of I guess what he's who he's made me into and who I'm representing. So I there's been moments in my career where I've I've played really well, I've done really good things, achieved things I wouldn't think I have achieved. And back in high school, I remember like I didn't really focus on him as much as I should have. And I got lost in like the comparisons, got lost in like I need to get better and better and better. And then in doing that, my mindset deteriorated, and then I just I kind of got stuck, you kind of plateau. But in this recent mindset, being at college and playing more at that level of understanding that I have more to represent than myself, and that it's not it's not just me doing these things. That pride has kind of gone away, and I feel a lot more fulfilled in my work, and I can see the progress. And I don't know. It's hard not to I get it because as human beings, it's we want to like just take all the credit, but yeah, remembering him and knowing that his talents or my talents are his talents and my gifts are his gifts, that it makes me a lot more humble and a lot more loved knowing that I'm doing what he's prepared me to do.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think that's super important. Um let's kind of touch back on this comparisons because a lot of athletes like to compare themselves with other athletes, and we I mean, we're taught that it's not a good thing. It never is and never has been. Now, you talk about um remembering Jesus Christ and that he's the one that kind of helps you, like he's given you those talents, but how do you try to avoid that comparison now? Like it's hard to it's it's honestly hard, right? It's not an easy thing to compare to not compare yourself with other people because you see someone do something that you're like, dang, I've been practicing that for months and I still can't do it. How'd they do that? Yeah. Um, but how would you how how do you avoid comparing yourself with other people or try to not let it affect you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a good question. Um I guess some background information for for tennis is a rating system called called UTR. And it's like based on uh like a zero to sixteen point scale with decimal points, and each match you win, it'll goes up by a little bit, each match you lose goes down, whatever. And for certain levels of college tennis sort of stuff, you need to be a certain like point like rating. And that was always hard for me comparing myself to like others, like okay, I'm only an 8.2 and this guy's already a nine, or like a pro is like 13, like how like this is it's not fair. How come I'm not there? I'm putting in all this work. And it's like I think everyone in any sport can like write like the three-star, four-star, five-star can understand that it's like I'm I'm putting in all this work, how why is it not showing up for me? And I used to compare going into these junior tournaments, even to start my college career, going into these matches, like, okay, well, I'm not this. How's how's this how am I gonna win? How's it gonna be possible? And learning that, like, I stopped comparing myself to others based on, I guess, without rating, and only comparing myself with my previous self and how I can improve myself better, because that's something I can have 100% control of. There's a lot of factors you're not gonna be able to control in in a sport in a match. And as soon as I started comparing myself to only myself, then my mindset changed, and it made it a lot easier to be in control of my mindset, my my training and my spirituality, not focusing on too much of the outside and only focusing on who I need to be and who I need to be as a person, as like an athlete, and everything like that. So I think the biggest thing was just trying to actually like shift my focus. I mean, it's it's kind of the same concept, you're still focusing on being better, but instead of focusing on others, you're focusing on yourself and in a good way too, not like just being self-centered. So I think for me that's one of the biggest things I did that helped me. I'm still working on a course, athletes were always working, but it's really helped me improve that side of my game and helped me constantly improve that way.
SPEAKER_04For sure. I think something that's really hard in sports is statistics, right? Like we have in in every sport there's so many different statistics, and you just watch it, and that's where athletes start to compare themselves. It's like especially young athletes trying to make it to the collegiate level, next level. It's it's like at least I did it growing up. I was like, what do I need to score in golf to be able to play in college? Like, what do I need to do to get there? And it's like, yes, that helps. It's okay. It's good to know and have goals, but once you start like comparing yourself and seeing that, oh, this person's shooting this, I need to be doing better than that. It's not no, I need to be doing better than this person, it's no, I need to improve my own game. Yeah, I need to focus on me and figure out how I can be better as a player, as a as a person too, because that's not like sports isn't just to become a better athlete, but it's really it shapes who we are, who we're becoming, and what we're gonna do in the future. Because what we see is sports are gonna end like one day we're not gonna be able to go out and compete again regardless. We're gonna have to go to work, do whatever it is, you know. Yeah, and it's it's it's hard because you want to compare yourself because you want to be like, okay, this person's the best, I need to be like them, but no, we need to remember who we are as children of God and sons and daughters of God, and remember that we're perfect the way that we are, the way that we were created, and we just need to focus on getting better and not trying to be someone else. Exactly. And it's hard to get caught up in that in sports, but we definitely athletes need to remember that it really is it's important to remember that we have that identity that's that Christian-based identity rather than an athlete-based identity. And I think it's important to remember to be a Christian before you remember that you're an athlete because that will that will guide you through a lot of hardships through the rough spots in sports, right? Like there's plenty of times you're just in a rough patch and you're just like, How am I ever gonna come back from this? Like, this sucks. Like I'm not good. But when you remember that Christ is by your side, who's always supporting you, who's your number one fan really is, then you're gonna have that motivation to improve, to get better, and you won't be down in the dumps all the time. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00I forgot, I forgot who said it, but if it was a a pastor or a apostle or or I forget what it was, but uh it's it was they said pretty much like as long as you put Christ first in the center of your life, everything else will fall into place. Kind of like a puzzle. He's the well, you know, Christ is the rock, and when you stand on the rock, everything else will will be fortified around you. And yeah, it's it's 100% true.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Um I found some scriptures here that I'd like to read in the New Testament and just kind of get your thoughts on them. Just talking a little bit about the importance of humility and subjecting ourselves, right? Um it's in one Peter in 1 Peter five, verses five and six. It says, Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the older. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humil humility. For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Um Do you have any thoughts on those scriptures or humility in general?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think it's it's it's interesting to see that he well when God uh speaks to us, when Jesus speaks to us, there's always like kind of what he wants us to do, and then a promise. So he wants us to be humble, wants us to be caring and not be prideful, and doing that we'll be exalted in due time. So I think it's it's some I mean he wouldn't say that if it wasn't important to to be Christ like, to be humble, to be not as prideful. That's kind of what stood out to me a lot, is that he always promises blessings for things, and if it wasn't important, then why would he? Why would he bring this up right now?
SPEAKER_04Exactly. I think that's that's definitely something super important for us is humility to be humble to to be able to learn from others, right? As an athlete, you have to be able to learn. If you can't be coachable, then you're not you're not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_03Exactly.
SPEAKER_04And I mean, as an athlete as an as a Christian, it's important to listen to those who are older, wiser, who've had more experience. It's important to subject ourselves to them and understand where they're coming from and how they're trying to help us, right? That's something that's that's super important growing up as an athlete, as a young Christian.
SPEAKER_00It's it's that's true as well. It's kind of what you said brought to my mind as well. It's I guess listen like look up to the your role models and and listen to them, but also like look at who you can be when you're older as well. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. Um moving on to the next question. What's kind of this is an interesting one to me. It's um what responsibility do Christian athletes have in today's culture? What do you think about that?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think nowadays um it's kind of hard, it's not hard, but in the social media aspect, it's hard to be a Christian. You get come from under fire, a lot of speculations. People like to, I mean, the work of the adversary has been really strong, especially against people who want to be closer to God. So as a Christian athlete, having it's kind of like not even trying to, you kind of have a platform you have to represent. Like even even though I'm not, I may not be like a social media influencer, I still have an image of Christ I have to represent. So no matter if I'm online or if I'm on the court or if I'm just with my friends, I as an athlete I have to represent him. So I think it's super important that you're always gonna have people looking at you, whether you like it or not. That's just kind of how it is. And I mean, having that responsibility keeps me a lot more also humble in a way, but helps me know that I have a lot bigger plans than just to be a tennis player here. Yeah, like you said, it's comes to be Christian first.
SPEAKER_04So exactly. I think I look at this um this question, and I kind of just I think myself and I try and look at the bigger Christian athlete influencers that we can see in today's world, and it's it's it's great to see them and to see these big athletes expect express their faith in Jesus Christ because I mean you don't see it a lot. A lot of a lot of the time athletes, I mean, we see in today's world athletes get a lot involved in politics, and that that's something that it can be hard to see. It's like okay, why? Like, we get you're an athlete, but come on, like let' focus on the game, like let's not get involved in these big things, you know. Yeah, but seeing an athlete come out and talk about Christ, like just being able to see, like for me, a big example is Scotty Scheffler. Yeah, like Scotty Scheffler, he's a um number one golfer in the world right now, but he is so open about his faith and um the importance of family to him. And that's something that's motivated him throughout his entire career. And we see that him expressing his faith has obviously gotten him to the top of the world, like being able to do that. And then another one recently uh a couple weeks ago, um Bo Nicks, Denver Broncos quarterback, he he had a big injury, but I saw this video of him where he was able to read some of his favorite scriptures and share thoughts of going through hard times with other people, and it's just it's just so cool to see these big, these, these uh high-caliber athletes just have these opportunities to share Jesus Christ with other people because they have the platform to do it, so it's like do it. You have that opportunity, be that missionary, do that, do that thing that Christ asks us to do, spread his gospel to every interest of the world, right? And I definitely see that like the responsibility of a Christian athlete, I think is super important. And I think it all starts I mean it all starts in little league, really. Like um I mean it may be harder, obviously in little league, but growing up you can kind of see how faith will change the game, will adjust your mindset. All these questions that we've already gone through, how it's gonna affect you when you're at your top, like are you gonna be the most prideful person on the on the field on the court, or are you gonna humble yourself like Christ asks us to do? Um, are you gonna have that faith-based mindset going into the game? It's just it's important to remember what our identity is and be able to express that in a positive way. Like there's um um a while ago I had uh Sydney Crandall on this on the podcast, the dancer here at S V U, and um she just talked to us kind of about the importance of expressing to to I don't remember how she worded, but it was like testifying with your body, with your talents, right? Being able the way she does it is through dance. She expresses her faith and the talents that God gave her through her dancing. And that's something that I think is important for athletes is to express your faith through your talents and to make sure you give that thanks to God. It's like you didn't get here by yourself. God helped you get here. So express that and let him know that you're grateful for him and how he helped you do that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You said something I can't remember what it was, but it reminded me of like kind of like how closely having a testimony and being an athlete are related. Like in a sport you have the fundamentals like a certain let's say like in basketball you have a certain jump shot that you practice over and over again and then when game time comes you can you can hit that three or you can make the free throw. Or in golf you practice the same swing over again tennis same thing. It's like the certain fundamentals that make you become who you are but also like that you can perform in the highest situations. I was thinking that kind of the same thing about the gospel or about your own testimony. If you don't do the little things beforehand, like you're saying Little League. If you don't take down take time for yourself to actually like learn about it and find God for yourself then when it comes to the big situations in life are you going to be able to crumble are you going to crumble or are you going to be able to stand strong with God and face these big situations like when you're talking about Bonix with his when he injured himself he's able to find comfort through his testimony in the hardest times of his career. Yeah. So I think something came in mind it's you're going to need this stuff if you don't practice it now it's it's going to be harder later on.
SPEAKER_04Exactly it's we see that I mean a lot of athletes start with it right maybe not a lot but there's a lot of people that when they're young they're they can be raised in a Christian based home but you kind of see that if they're not practicing it themselves and it's like their parents are like fortunate on them they're gonna grow up move out and things are going to change drastically they're either going to drop out or they're gonna lose their faith whatever it is and it's it's hard to see that because it's like well you've been taught these things your whole life and now it's nothing to you but when we see that we take the time ourselves to learn it for ourselves like we have to in a game like or in in a sport we have to learn the fundamentals we have to learn the little things first before we can even go out and play. Like we have to practice before playing and that's kind of what growing up is it's like the practice like you receive the practice you receive the instruction and the gospel and then you get into the real world world you're out by yourself and it's like okay now I'm playing am I going to remember God or what am I going to do? And especially as an athlete I think that I mean really not especially as an athlete but really anyone it's important to remember that that Christ is number one. Like he's what's most important to us and what will help us grow and to become stronger and um honestly get farther in life is to remember him and trust him and his plan for us. I think we're gonna kind of wrap things up here a little bit we're gonna go through um something I do with every single athlete just to kind of get their words of advice some final counsel from them. So I'm first gonna have you share your favorite Bible verse with us something that's inspired you maybe in your career your your life what it just a Bible verse that strengthens you every day.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And then after that I'll have you share your best piece of advice for an athlete who's trying to stay on the path.
SPEAKER_00Yeah do I put my phone read it awesome yeah there's a lot of when I think of Bible verses or scriptures that come to mind strengthened me a lot come there's a lot that go in and out of my head but um one that was really strong is still strong for me but it's really strong for me my beginning of my career I guess later on in junior high school beginning my college career was in Romans 8 and it was 16 and 17 and it says the spirit itself bears witness with sorry the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God and of children then heirs then heirs heirs of God then joint heirs of Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together. I mean it helps me a ton just knowing like we've already kind of talked about this how that we are children of God and because that we are children from God we are like him joint heirs it's like we can receive everything that he receives so we're I wouldn't say we're not equal as God in that sense but we're equal that we can be like him and be like Jesus Christ. And that if we suffer with him we we go through the hard things that we need to go through with him then we will be glorified together in him. So it's it's helped me a lot in this because nobody everyone knows that this life is not easy. And reading the scripture each time tells me that if I go through the hard things with him that I it doesn't matter where I'm at right now that I will be glorified with him later on.
SPEAKER_04So as an athlete as a person as a human being it's it's important to recognize that especially yeah for sure um yeah I think it's super important for all athletes for everyone to to remember this and to remember who what your true identity really is and then I mean if you want to go a long span with that or just a final piece of advice that you have for the athletes that are listening to this who are striving and trying to stay on the path.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. One of the most important things or I guess like a big piece of advice I can give for you guys would be just never forget where you come from and that is that is Christ. Always remember that he is here for you and that he will serve you as long as if you serve him. One of the biggest things I learned is that God loves us but we have to love him first. And if we love him first then he will give everything he wants to to help us I like to think it's like it's like a handshake he's reaching out his hand for us there's the there's a famous image of God reaching down to to Peter in the water and we have to reach up and take his hand and if we don't take the hand then we're we're lost. But we have to take that step towards him and then he will show us everything he needs to show us. So my biggest piece of advice is is don't be afraid to go out to God. He's waiting for you don't feel like it's too far it's too late. He will always be there too to serve you and help you as long as you love him.
SPEAKER_04So thank you. Appreciate that um thank you again Mason so much for being here today for inviting me some of course um thanks everyone for tuning in to another episode of On the Path remember to tune in next week and the week after that um we're gonna I'm gonna keep meeting with athletes because honestly it strengthens me more than anything um and it's super important to remember these things remember these athletes are humans too and um they've worked hard to get where they are and remember that it's important to always keep Christ at the center of our lives that's the that's the focus that's the goal of this podcast is to keep Christ at the center and to remember him whether we're an athlete or anything really it's just important to remember these things. Thanks again really everyone for tuning in remember to share it with your friends and family follow the Instagram OTP on the path to get daily scriptures and also updates on the podcast and always remember everyone to stay on the path