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One’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.

Luke 12:15

In a Sports Illustrated interview, baseball hero Mickey Mantle once described his long battle with alcohol and his heartbreaking problems with his family. The interviewer then asked, “So how are things going with you today, Mickey?”

“Better,” was the reply. “I haven’t had a drink in eight months. I’m starting to get my life back together, but I just feel like there’s something missing.”

Here was a living legend who had played 2,401 games for the New York Yankees from 1951 to 1968, hit a record eighteen homers in twelve World Series, and had entered baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1974. But he felt empty inside, for the accumulation of wealth, fame, and accomplishment didn’t satisfy.

Is something missing in your life?

Near the end of his life, Mickey Mantle found what he had always been looking for—Jesus Christ. Another former baseball player, Bobby Richardson, led him to Christ. At Mantle’s funeral, Richardson told of helping Mantle receive the Lord Jesus as his personal Savior. “I am trusting Christ’s death for me to take me to heaven,” Mickey Mantle said on his deathbed.

Only in Jesus Christ can we find our true identity. He alone gives us a fulfilled, abundant life.