The rookie shortstop who starred...
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The rookie shortstop who starred for the Minnesota Twins in last year's World Series, learned through bitter experience of the importance of the "whole armor of God."
Greg Gagne grew up as an undisciplined teenager in Somerset, Massachusetts. He experimented with drugs, skipped school, drank, and partied. At seventeen, he attempted suicide. Though he was an all-state in football and baseball, he was kicked off the football team for truancy and drug use. The first upward turn came when his father took him aside and asked, "What are you trying to do with your life?"
Let Claire Smith of the Hartford Courant take up the story:
"The drinking and smoking tapered off. Gagne's life began to turn. In 1980, the final transformation occurred. While playing for the Yankee's minor league team in Greensboro, North Carolina, Gagne got into a discussion with players who had turned to religion. They proselytized and Gagne listened. That's when he found he was a sinner. That's when his conversion to Christianity occurred.
"Now for the first time, Gagne has the ear of the national media and he has a message to deliver. 'A lot of kids in the world are like me,' he says. 'I don't want them to see me. I want them to see what God did for me in my life. I want them to see that life is not drugs, drinking, and smoking. Life is not even baseball. Baseball is good, but it is not life.'"
Like Paul, he declares it boldly.
Greg Gagne grew up as an undisciplined teenager in Somerset, Massachusetts. He experimented with drugs, skipped school, drank, and partied. At seventeen, he attempted suicide. Though he was an all-state in football and baseball, he was kicked off the football team for truancy and drug use. The first upward turn came when his father took him aside and asked, "What are you trying to do with your life?"
Let Claire Smith of the Hartford Courant take up the story:
"The drinking and smoking tapered off. Gagne's life began to turn. In 1980, the final transformation occurred. While playing for the Yankee's minor league team in Greensboro, North Carolina, Gagne got into a discussion with players who had turned to religion. They proselytized and Gagne listened. That's when he found he was a sinner. That's when his conversion to Christianity occurred.
"Now for the first time, Gagne has the ear of the national media and he has a message to deliver. 'A lot of kids in the world are like me,' he says. 'I don't want them to see me. I want them to see what God did for me in my life. I want them to see that life is not drugs, drinking, and smoking. Life is not even baseball. Baseball is good, but it is not life.'"
Like Paul, he declares it boldly.
