How Softball Player Katelyn Pavey Trusts God Through Adversity: ‘He Has a Plan’

How Softball Player Katelyn Pavey Trusts God Through Adversity: ‘He Has a Plan’

By Moiveguide® Contributor

Despite only having one arm, former Cincinnati Christian University softball standout Katelyn Pavey Rockwood didn’t stop chasing her dreams and trusted God through adversity.

“Phocomelia Syndrome basically means that my arm didn’t fully develop in the womb, so my left arm kind of cuts off right where my elbow would be, and it left me with a small hand with two digits,” she explained on the “Jesus Calling” podcast.

Rockwood explained that no one knew about her condition until she was born.

“And for me, knowing that I have one arm, I didn’t really see myself as any different or really didn’t think much of it,” she continued. “My grandma told my dad, ‘God doesn’t make mistakes. She was born like this for a reason. God has a plan, and everything’s going to be okay.'” 

Rockwood eventually began playing softball. She eventually landed a spot on the Cincinnati Christian University softball team. However, she sustained an injury during her freshman year.

“I ended up tearing my ACL, I tore my meniscus, and I sprained all the ligaments around my knee. And so my freshman year, before I even got to play, was done, and I had a red shirt that year. And the doctor told me it was going to be a nine-month recovery,” she explained. “And at that point in my life, softball was so important to me and I was lost without it, and I didn’t even know what to do. And so that’s really when the questioning of, Why me? and questioning God, you know, Why do bad things happen to good people? Am I ever going to play softball again?”

She learned to trust that God had a plan.

“The same grandma who told me that God doesn’t make mistakes, she told me that God has a plan for everything, and you might not know what that is, but it’s going to make you better, it’s going to make you stronger, and you just have to trust in Him,” she continued. “And that’s kind of what I leaned on to get through this recovery.”

“I ended up recovering in four and a half months from this injury, and it just proved to me that trusting in God and trusting that He has a plan, really pushed me to get better and pushed me to come back and play softball again,” she said.

Pavey often uses her platform to share Bible verses and encouragement.

Earlier this year, she posted, “All smiles for game day! ❤️ ‘You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.’ Matthew 5:14-16.”

Her story was recently dramatized in the movie I CAN.

Movieguide® summarized, “I CAN tells the true story of Katelyn Pavey, a girl born with only one arm. Despite her disability, Katelyn becomes a phenomenal softball player. With the support of her parents and grandparents, and her faith in God, Katelyn pursues her dream of receiving an athletic scholarship and becoming an All-American softball player in college. Tragedies strike Katelyn and her family, however. Will they lean on God and one another? Or, will their faith be tested to the breaking point?”

“I CAN speaks to everyone’s challenges and deals directly with a dad’s feelings of guilt and shame and his distance from God over his daughter’s disability,” said Kappa Studios President Paul Long. “With all the confusion, fear and hopelessness in the world today, we believe that God has given us this platform to lift the culture with messages of hope.”

Part of Movieguide®’s review reads:

Watch THE VELVETEEN RABBIT →

Quality: - Content: +3

Watch THE PRINCESS DIARIES 2: ROYAL ENGAGEMENT →

Quality: - Content: +3