"I jump into a sand pit for a living"
Payne Stewart
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Tracey Stewart with Ken Abraham, London, Harper Collins, 2000
The book is a biography of Payne by his wife. Payne Stewart was one of the world's top golfers who died in a plane crash aged 42. In 27 chapters the book traces his life and death.
In a chapter called WWJD, Tracey Tell us a story off their spiritual journey they were friendly with the baseball pitcher, Orel Hershiser, He taught his Sunday school class at First Baptist Church, Orlando, they started going to the class. They were given a book of daily Bible readings.
Tracey explains: ! Nobody tried to talk pain into what he should believe or how we should live out his faith he simply set out on his own journey with God. Descriptors themselves where the most powerful influence on pains life. Frequently he'd get all excited about something he discovered in the scripture book and couldn't wait to tell me”.
She adds later: ! Payne was very much a Christian in process, not someone who felt he had arrived spiritually… but his face was genuine and as he understood the Bible, the issue wasn't about how much faith he had but whether his faith in Christ was real. And everyone close to Payne knew that his face was real.
She describes him getting a WW JD bracelet from his son and deciding to wear it. The reason he warned was to show that he was not afraid to talk about his faith in Christ until let people know it was a big part of his life.
Final chapter she describes telling their children that the plane had crashed “daddy is in a better place. He is in heaven”.