I was one of those millions who fell in love with Josh Hamilton last season after hearing his story and seeing his Home Run Derby performance.  I made 25 of those 2.4 million votes for Josh Hamilton in the All-Star Game voting, knowing the whole time that his performance hadn't be so good up that point and that he hadn't even played enough to deserve the spot.  But I was fascinated by Josh Hamilton's story of redemption and his amazing feats at Yankee Stadium last season.

So quite naturally when I went to Yahoo! Sports and saw Josh Hamilton's photo and a headline about him as the highlight of the page, I had to click.  And this is what I saw:

"Josh Hamilton's ongoing struggles with addiction just experienced a little more turbulence with the self-revelation that the Texas Rangers slugger slipped up from his recovery and drank alcohol in an Arizona bar earlier this year.

On Saturday morning, Deadspin posted 12 revealing photos of Hamilton on what the website said was a wild night in a Tempe, Ariz., bar before the season. In the shots, Hamilton is pictured with several young women and can be seen without a shirt in several of the photos.

Hamilton is never pictured drinking or doing drugs, but he can be seen lying shirtless on the bar while the women cover him with whipped cream and do body shots off his stomach."

SOURCE: (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Josh-Hamilton-s-long-journey-takes-another-twist;_ylt=AtsnYz7J_GO_TgX_BrDap045nYcB?urn=mlb,181651)

First thought: wow, what a disappointment, Josh!  How could you honestly do such a thing?  Haven't you learned your lesson?

Seems like that's what the majority of the sports world was thinking.  A few select "gems" from the 410 comments to that story:

"He is a jerk!!!!!!!!"

"Yep, Josh found God all right. Thanks again for screwing over the Rays and good luck keeping your life straight, "hero". You need it."

"what a total idiot!!!!! married with kids and his poor wife outta divorce him now while she can get money off his ugly butt now!!!!"

"He should be kicked off the Rangers Baseball Association. We only want and respect good christian quality players. He isn't batting worth a crap anyway this year. He's a loser and a liar now. Just looking for symphathy while he goes around doing stuff like this and then trying to buck it off as "I'm only human" bull crap. Besides he's married with children. His wife should divorce him and take him to the cleaners."

"Anybody who does not think this is a story is a moron. Hamilton himself realized it was a story by addressing the issue. The part that makes it a story isnt the fact he is drinking; it is the hypocrisy of saying how "god" helped him quit. Wen he quits its godfs work, but when he fails it is a slip up? No , god has nothing to do with either, since there is no god. He does not help you win the game (if there was a god do you think he cares who wins), and he does nto keep you on or off drugs. Grow some balls and take control of your life Mr Hamilton"

"Hamilton is a phony."

"Once an addict always an addict. Where 's that Jesus Christ he's always talks about every time his addict face is on TV...what a lying scumbag. I hope he relapses on the H and overdoses. Accept Satan as Your Lord"

Now my first thoughts weren't that bad (especially compared to that last comment); I certainly wasn't about to stop being a Josh Hamilton fan over this.  Was I disappointed?  Yeah, definitely.  He's my favorite baseball player, so of course I was.

I didn't even look at the photos (though I watched SportsCenter that night and saw two of them).  What exactly was on them was irrelevant to me.  Josh gave into temptation and slipped up; that's all that really matters.

Soon after those first thoughts, my perspective switched back to where it should be.  Not only am I a huge Josh Hamilton fan, but I am also, and more importantly, a Christian.  Yes, I was disappointed, but there was far more to be taken from this story:

1. Josh's actions after the incident in January were very mature and showed that he was truly sorry for what he did.  The next day he called his wife and the Rangers organization, told them what happened, and apologized.  Athletes mess up all the time, but how often do you see one fess up to what they did like that?

2. Josh messed up ONCE.  He's human.  Humans mess up.  Yes, even Christians.  Being a Christian doesn't mean you're perfect; it means you've been saved from the punishment you deserve for your sins (hell) and that you're being sanctified by the Holy Spirit, moving in a direction of holiness.  This doesn't somehow make Josh any less a Christian.  In fact, as Josh said in his press conference after the story broke, "It doesn't say anything about having a relationship with Christ.  It just lets me know I need one more than ever."

3. Once an addict, always an addict.  Addiction is an everyday struggle; it's something Josh is going to have to deal with everyday for the rest of his life.  This just shows recovering addicts how important it is not to give in to any sort of temptation.  Josh decided he could handle one drink.  That turned into two, which snowballed into who knows how many.

4. For Christians, it shows how important it is to keep your relationship with the Lord as your first and foremost priority.  Josh was focused on training for the upcoming season, and he slacked off on that relationship.  He said that's what caused this to happen.  He wasn't staying focused on what (more like Who) got him from where he was—being hopelessly addicted to alcohol, crack, and cocaine—to where he is—an All-Star outfielder for the Rangers, even after all the years of abuse to his body and time away from baseball.

Much more could be said, but those four thoughts are sufficient.

So how should one respond to this story?  Stop rooting for Josh Hamilton?  By no means.  I'm as big of a Josh Hamilton fan as ever; in fact, the way he handled this situation might even make me a bigger fan of his than I ever was—and trust me, I was a huge fan.  Minnesota Twins fans don't just cheer for a player on another team (in effect, also cheering for the whole Rangers team) for no reason at all.

Non-Christians are going to hear this story and call Josh a hypocrite and say all sorts of nasty things.  Some will even increase the heckling that Josh deals with standing in the outfield every game.  But Christians have to look at this in a far different manner.  First off, we've got to forgive Josh as his wife Katie has, and more importantly, as Christ has forgiven us.  We've got to pray for Josh, Katie, and their children.  They need and appreciate the prayer.  We've got to pray that somehow God gets the glory from this, and I believe that He will.  He always does.

Now we just need to move on, enjoy the rest of the baseball season, and stay focused on Christ at all times.

I personally will be rooting for Josh to have a stellar remainder of the season, and more importantly, I will be praying for him and his family.

Go Josh!

NOTE: For Josh’s comments on what happened, go to http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/08/hamilton-transcript.html. For his wife Katie's comments, go to http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/08/here-are-some-of-katie-hamiltons-thought.html