Former Major League Baseball relief pitcher Jason Grimsley says a failed suicide attempt led him to dedicate his life to Jesus. Grimsley, who pitched for six teams from 1989 to 2006, recently released his first memoir, “Cross Stitched: One Man’s Journey From Ruin to Restoration,” which shows glimpses of his early life, his baseball career, and his redemption in God.

In a video interview with The Christian Post, Grimsley shared, “I was saved in 1999, the first year I joined the New York Yankees, and one of the best years of my life. I was really on fire. In fact, my wife even said, ‘Honey, you’re spending too much time with God and not enough time with me.’ I was just reading. I was into it, and I was living it.”

The former pitcher said his faith was an explosion of fire inside him. That same year, he had a fantastic season with the Yankees as they won the World Series. He recalled, “All of a sudden, it started being, ‘Oh look what I did,’ it became me. Pride ego started creeping back into my life, and that began to slowly fall away, getting back into being selfish, being about me.”

Grimsley said he reverted to that dangerous lifestyle that came with success and fame until everything came to a head in 2015. He explained, “It all culminated in 2015. I ended up out in the woods with a gun to my head, pulling the trigger, and it not going off.” His life story and everything until that point weren’t what he envisioned. Hopelessness led him to a suicide attempt.

He continued, “Basically, walking away from something that I dearly love added to the demons that I was battling. In the book, I describe it as being both the prodigal son, and I was the son that felt like he had earned everything and he had done everything right. Instead of being on fire for God, I feel God took me by the hand and said, ‘OK, I’m going to walk you through this at my pace. And I’m going to show you there’s nothing you can do to earn my love. I love you. And this is a relationship, and we’re just going to walk this together.'”

The Texas native also said his wife’s grace through everything showed God’s love for him. He shared, “My wife, the grace she showed me in coming to me and said, ‘Hey, I love you. I forgive you. God forgives you, now you got to forgive yourself, and that grace opened up the grace that the Lord has for me.”

That’s what inspired him to dedicate his life entirely to Christ. Cross Stitched shares Grimsley’s journey and is available everywhere books are sold.  Proceeds from the book will benefit Emerging Grace Ministries in their ongoing efforts to help eradicate adolescent sex trafficking.