Tony Finau recently opened up more about the role his faith as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints plays in his life.
Finau was a guest on this week’s episode of the “All Those in Favor” podcast.
“The gospel has blessed me in so many different ways, and I feel like the Lord has had his hand in my life in so many different ways. But allowing me to see the blessings and know who I am, I think that’s a huge one. I think understanding who I am as a child of God first and foremost. All the other titles that I have, they come after that,” he said.
Here are three takeaways from what Finau said about his faith.
Tony Finau’s advice for counseling with God
Finau believes when you’re faced with a big decision that you should pray and fast, but then you have to “move,” he said.
“I’ve moved and the Lord has always been with me,” he said.
He then shared something he learned from Justin Su’a, a former BYU pitcher and the founder of Performance Advisory Group: “Information precedes revelation.”
Finau said that even if you’re “doing all the things you feel like you need to do inside to make the right decision,” you might not receive a grand sign from God that tells you what decision to make.
“Gather the information and make the best choice you feel like you can make, and the Lord will follow you. He always will. That’s what I think is important for our youth is just that the Lord is with you. Do your best to make the best choice you can and the Lord will follow and bless you,” Finau said.
Tony Finau’s favorite scripture
Finau shared that his favorite scripture is Mosiah 3:19 from the Book of Mormon, which teaches about putting “off the natural man.”
“I think that that scripture just explains so much of our nature that I really gravitated towards that. Any time that I feel like I’m struggling, it’s usually something I can take from that scripture to kind of try to turn things around,” he said.
The scripture verse taught Finau about “being submissive, meek and humble, patient and full of love,” he said.
How losing his mom affected Tony Finau’s faith
Finau’s mother died in a car accident when he was 21. She was his best friend at the time.
He had been taught in church that families can be together forever, but that moment forced him to figure out if he really believed that.
“Man, I had some digging to do. So I would say my testimony truly sparked from a disaster in my family, and that was my mom was there one instant and then the next, she was gone. There was no warning. It was, she was there and then she wasn’t,” he said.
Finau said he had “to mature spiritually” as a result.
“Not that I didn’t have a testimony at the time, but my testimony smacked me in the face and was like ‘Do you actually think you’re going to see your mom again? Like deep down? You better do the work to know that that’s actually true,’” he said.
The day after his mom died, Finau’s first child was born.
“One day apart, I had the craziest things happen to me. I had death slap me in the face, and I also had birth. I became a father and had this incredible moment, but that was hard. That was a hard thing to try to figure out and deal with at that time,” he said.
Life would get even harder just three month later when doctors found a perforated ulcer in his stomach caused by the stress he had been experiencing. Finau could have died, he said.
It was a turning point for his faith as he prayed and read the Book of Mormon “diligently searching for solace, for peace, for joy, for answers and all of it,” he said.
“That time taught me so much. I was at my weakest physically, but spiritually, I don’t think I’ve ever been as strong,” Finau said.
He then decided to make a promise with God.
“I remember kind of making a covenant with the Lord that if you were to give me my physical abilities to just play this game and do something and be somebody, I’ll always use it for good, and that has been an extremely important moment in my life, where I didn’t know still if that was going to happen,” he said.
Two years later, Finau was on the PGA Tour. He had his first win on the tour a year after that.
“That whole sequence changed my life. It’s a moment that I’ll never forget, you know, that I had these really intimate prayers in my heart that I really felt like I wanted the Lord to be with me, and he was and was able to answer them years later in ways that I never would have even imagined,” Finau said. “That’s the thing. The Lord can make of us way more than we can make of ourselves on our own.”
