Strawberry’s In Season At Annual Leadership Prayer Breakfast

The 46^th annual Chattanooga Area Leadership Prayer Breakfast, attended by nearly 2,000 people, turned into a Strawberry festival of sorts. Darryl Strawberry, a former Major League Baseball star, was the main speaker, the fifth professional sports figure to be featured since the prayer breakfast was started in 1977.

Strawberry briefly touched on his 17-year career as a power-hitting outfielder for four teams, including the New York Mets and New York Yankees. However, the focus of his message was on the transforming impact of Jesus Christ on a person’s life, including his own.

Despite being an eight-time all-star, a member of three World Series championship teams and once considered a Hall of Fame shoo-in, substance abuse prevented Strawberry from achieving even greater glory on the baseball diamond. Today, however, the only glory he is concerned with is bringing glory to his Lord.

During his playing days, he said, “I would hold up many trophies and say, ‘I want to thank God,’ but I really didn’t know God. People ask me, ‘How did you find Jesus?’ and I respond, ‘Jesus was never lost.’”

He credits the faithful prayers of his mother for guiding him to a life-changing relationship with Christ. “She would pray to God, ‘Please knock my son off his throne.’”

Some celebrities ensnared by addictions are quick to blame their circumstances, but not Strawberry, who now travels coast to coast communicating his story and the saving message of the Gospel. “God found me in the pit – and He put me in the pulpit. I’m not a victim. I’m an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb. I was a sinner who needed a Savior.

“I had every home, every car, plenty of money. But that does not satisfy. The only thing that will ultimately satisfy is a relationship with Jesus, filling the void that is in each of us. I’m not Darryl Strawberry the baseball player anymore. I’m Darryl Strawberry the man of faith. Some people say I should have been in the Hall of Fame. No, I want to be in God’s hall of faith.”

During his talk Strawberry cited a number of Bible verses, but he repeated one that had been mentioned twice earlier in the program, 2 Chronicles 7:14. It says, “If My people, who ae called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

“This is what we need today,” he said. “It’s all about humbling ourselves before Him.”

Leading up to Strawberry’s talk, a number of community leaders participated in the event, reading passages from both the Bible’s Old and New Testaments, and offering prayers for the city, county, state and nation, as well as mothers, fathers and grandparents.

Plans are already being made for the 2026 Leadership Prayer Breakfast, to be held May 19. Barry “Butch” Wilmore is scheduled to speak. He is one of two astronauts who returned to Earth March 18 after their planned 8-day stay in low-Earth orbit turned into a nine-month mission on the International Space Station following a spacecraft malfunction.