Q: I have been struggling with my faith lately and trying to understand why bad things are happening to me. I am a baseball player. Last year I worked very hard to try to make the varsity team at my school. I outworked the rest of my teammates and put myself in a position where I should have made the team. However, I got cut. This was tough on me, but I trusted God’s plan. This year, I continued to work harder than everyone else. And when the season came around, I was one of the best players on the team. I was so grateful. I began to pray a ton and even started reading the Bible every night. However, in the very first game of our season, I tore my PCL [posterior cruciate ligament], and I recently learned that I have no chance of returning this season. I am devastated and confused. I worked hard, I was a good person, and I prayed all the time, yet things still didn’t go my way again. I have continued to pray a lot. I was wondering if you could provide me with some advice as to why God is leading me down this path. — B.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC:

A: It’s good to recall a few basic truths.

First, your core identity is that you are a beloved son of God. Jesus suffered and died on a cross for your redemption, so much does he love you.

I mention this because your core identity is not that you are an athlete. Your identity is deeper than that.

God wants your holiness and your happiness, and that means whatever he allows in your day, can help you grow in holiness if you see it in the right light.

While it’s good that you are trying to cultivate your talents, you want to be careful about thinking that everything depends solely on your own efforts.

We all depend on God, and he can give and take away his gifts as he sees fit. And his interest is always in our growth in virtue.

These setbacks you have suffered might actually be graces since they might help you to rethink where you are basing your happiness.

If we place all our hopes in sports or a job or material things, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. God alone will fill our hearts. If we put him first in our life, everything will find its proper place.

So, what about all those prayers? Were they pointless? No!

Prayers help us remember how much we depend on God. He certainly hears our prayers. It’s just that sometimes he responds by giving us what we most need, not what we want at the moment.

In your case, Our Lord might be trying to get you to focus on the things most valuable in your life: your faith, your family, your (relatively good) health, your intelligence.

Or he might be allowing some misfortune in order to form you. Amid adversity we learn tenacity — we don’t give up and we keep trusting in God’s providence.

Whatever lies in the future, if you stay close to prayer and to the sacraments, the Holy Spirit will guide you on the right path.