Baseball’s Logan Gilbert Uses Faith to Face Fear

In addition to a baseball mound, Logan Gilbert knows where he stands! ¬ The Seattle Mariners All-Star right-hander is baseball’s most efficient pitcher, minimizing opponent’s at-bats per inning, efficient enough to even know himself and know the source of his deep convictions.

Question: “Tie your profession as a player with who you are as a person and how the two emerge together on that every fifth day of your rotation out there.”                                                                                        

Logan Gilbert: “It can be so competitive and fierce and in the Bible you see Old Testament people going to war like Joshua a lot – and do not fear, be strong and courageous. That stuff really resonates with me when I’m out there, this supernatural peace that will find you in really tough situations and circumstances. So I’ll pray before the games and then when I get out there I’m completely in the moment, completely competitive. The two come together every single time - this eternal connection with God. Have a really good sense of your identity and where that comes from is the most important thing for me.”                                                                  

Question: “At what point do you known you have it?”

Logan Gilbert: “Ah, usually right before I start my bullpen. I’ll pray out there for a minute of two. I do all my warm-ups, running around and then that’s when I take like a second to be still for a couple moments. That’s when I think it clicks for me. And then of course I’ll be nervous right before the game and then when I go out there it’s where I feel most comfortable”.  

Question: “So Logan you’ll know you have it here before you actually throw a pitch?”

Logan Gilbert: “Yeah, it’s pretty deep too – at a soul level. You don’t necessarily know that things are going to go perfect. But you know regardless how things go that you’ll be okay because you have something so much greater. You have eternal significance and security from God that’s its not proving yourself in some way.”  

Question: ”Does it make it a pitch by pitch account for you every game?”

Logan Gilbert: “It’s almost like draining at times. Because every single pitch you go through the same commitment, mental process and it happens every 15 seconds or whatever. But you throw a pitch, execute, learn for it and then completely forget about it. In a way! And go on to the next one. And do that over and over completely committed to your process.”

Question: “How do you walk that balance of trying to perfect as you go along, in the game - every pitch you are yielding and surrendering to things that you cannot control?”

Logan Gilbert: “Right. It’s tough. Um, trying to be perfect was – ‘help me get here’. So I had to learn how to walk that line and how to do it in a healthy and sustainable way. I kind of gave up trying to be perfect, controlling results. I don’t really have as much control as I think. I so grateful I can surrender that to somebody that is in control – and there’s so much hope in that.”

Question: “All-Star Logan, what’s the common denominator for excellence?”

Logan Gilbert: “Really knowing yourself and than after that just being yourself – genuinely – and not trying to be something more than yourself, on the mound as a pitcher, as a person.”¬

Question: “That’s for all of us. (“oh, everybody, yeah”) How freeing is that for you?”

Logan Gilbert: “Oh yeah, you hit it on the head right there! The freedom that comes with it ‘cuz I’ve been out there pitching games and it can go great but almost felt tight like – ‘oh no at any second something could go wrong’. But if you’re being yourself, have that freedom that comes with it, that freedom is ultimately what you were called to live in, now you’re enjoying the moment, you’re enjoying what you were made to do.”

Question: “Unconditional love of a father, our creator. (‘Yeah’). How does that look to you?”

Logan Gilbert: “There’s just so much anxiety, like everybody, even I at times face it. When you have that unconditional love or you know the source that gives that to you. There’s so much peace in that. Nothing I could do could change that. It’s like you don’t have this mask on, you’re not trying to preform in a certain way to hold up a trophy and say, ‘look at me’. I’m already known by God and that can’t be taken away.”    

Question: “Have you found by taking that mask off about yourself that your sightline to Him becomes that much clearer to Him, too?”

Logan Gilbert: “That’s a good way to put it, for sure. I think I’ve felt that at times. I don’t think I’ve understood it as well as you’ve just said it, honestly, but once you say that – He wants to know the real you, right? Just like we want to know Him as you experience Him. God knows us better than we know ourselves so its like, why would we pretend to be anything else?”¬

Question: “How has your Christ-following and this specific profession for you, allowed you to be able to walk through all of these uncertainties?”

Logan Gilbert: “For me, I get caught up in the same traps as everybody else. And there’s always something bigger and better. And then you’re comparing yourself to people around you and they have a little bit more.  I mean there’s important stuff here, right? But it’s like what is one more whatever it is, going to relate to be eternally being loved by God who made you, who already says – ‘you’re enough.’”

Question: “So Logan in your game, scouts were looking, searching for you, what do you think people are most searching for now?”

Logan Gilbert: “People, I feel like everyone, whether they know it or not is searching for that fulfillment, looking for it in different ways, unfortunately not finding it anywhere else. And I’ve experienced that myself in this game or a ton of other things. But the love of Jesus, being known by Him, knowing Him - when you know the hole in your heart that’s meant for Jesus and ultimately you feel that when you know Him – that’s the fulfillment that we’re made for.”