Listen Now: Apple | Spotify
Pepperdine has long been successful in the sport of women’s volleyball, and the Waves’ first-ever West Coast Conference Player of the Year and one of its earliest All-Americans was Julie Evans Castillo. Evans arrived in the fall of 1984 and made an immediate impact as a freshman, finishing second on the team in kills and digs. She helped the Waves go from six wins the year before to 24 in 1984, as well as a final national ranking of No. 17 and a spot in the NCAA Tournament. By 1985, Evans was named the WCC’s first-ever Player of the Year, and she repeated as the award-winner in 1987.
It is no surprise she was inducted into the Pepperdine University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018. She set school career records for kills (1,955), kills per set (4.60), service aces (147) and points (2,218.0), all of which stood for a decade and she now ranks second in each of these categories. Her most prolific season was 1986, when she had 576 kills and 45 service aces.
Although athletics was a huge part of her life and still is through her kids, more importantly, Julie is a powerful woman in her faith. In today’s episode, we tackle hard hitting topics. Julie so openly talks about her struggles not only on and off the field as an athlete, but also things that she struggles with to this day. Something powerful she speaks about is how sports can become an idol in your life and how to combat that temptation. She says, “If we walk in obedience by doing what He says in His Word, we will be set apart. We get too much in our head of what that looks like.”
If you can’t already tell, her wisdom is just absolutely radiant. Her love for Jesus and her drive to know more about Him makes me want to be a better follower of Christ. Her message of the power of community and walking in obedience is one that I admire so much, and I know you will too.
3 key takeaways from this episode:
Finding Jesus in the unexpected
In Julie’s case, as funny as it sounds, she was introduced and accepted Jesus while breaking up with a boyfriend in college. This was the redemptive moment of her life. As she can look back at this situation in her life, she tells about how divine this appointment was and how her life was forever changed.
Why are sports such a powerful idol?
Julie speaks about the importance of staying vigilant and intentional about staying in the Word, guarding your heart, and keeping Jesus at the center of everything that you do. We talk about personal experiences where we knew that we were allowing our sport to be our idol and how we redirected ourselves to Jesus.
How to honor God in your sport
“We know how to speak ‘Christian-ese,’” Julie says, “but there’s a difference between our confessional faith and what’s really going on.” This statement stood out so profoundly to me. We honor God in our sport by honoring God with our lives. Our realities, our struggles, our issue on and off the field, they can all be traced back to the constant need to renew our minds in every scenario. When we make a bad play and have an attitude afterwards, renew our mind. When we feel lost and don’t know where to go next, renew your mind. It’s all about following and honoring God first.
Here are all the things mentioned in this episode:
Book: “Gospel Treason” by Brad Bigney (check it out HERE)
Follow the FAM (@femaleathletemission)
