Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Don't Waste Your Sports - Part 1

What is it that drives you in sports? Is it the applause of the crowd? The adrenaline rush you get when you come through big in a clutch situation? Is it the approval of others? Are you driven in sports because your identity is wrapped up in your performance? These are important questions to ask if you are a Christian athlete.

For Mahaney, he was driven in sports as a young man by a "passion to be admired" (10). He said that "swimming was merely my stage, my opportunity to impress others with my athleticism. Each event was a platform for drawing attention to myself" (10).

I look back on my sports life and sadly I realize that much of it was spent drawing attention to myself as well. The problem with sports is not sports, despite what some might say. The problem with sports is the human heart. We have taken what God created to bring glory to Himself, and turned it inward. As Mahaney says, "sports are a gift from God. But as soon as you introduce the human heart, things get complicated" (11).

The good news is, those of us who have put our trust in Jesus Christ have been given a new heart, with new desires to please Him and bring glory to Him.! 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away: behold, the new has come." Now that our identity is in Christ, we are free to play sports for Him and not ourselves.

Reflection Questions:


  1. Who's glory have you been playing for these last several weeks?

  2. Are you more concerned with what others think of you on the baseball diamond or how you are representing your Savior on the baseball diamond?

  3. Are you experiencing joy playing your sport or are you overloaded with anxiety and fear?

- Tyler Durham

2 comments:

TEvans said...

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" (Colossians 3:23 ESV)

SbrviviLaMafiaAntigua said...

In Col 3:23, the Apostle was speaking in the context of our service to God. Not necessarily our day to day details. Sure, we can apply this to our tasks at home and business, in dealings with our wives, in doing our taxes, playing sports. But does any of that bring glory to God? No. It is demonstrating our obedience to him, rather than going by the watered down morals of society. It is showing our love for him. Heartily, or wholesouled as another version renders it, means giving of ourselves, using all our faculties and directing our energies to the fullest extent possible in God’s service. Put simply, it means doing all that our soul can do. A minister or preacher can spend his day talking about God. But what really matters is how he shows his love of God. His lifestyle and conduct should reflect it. And what does that mean when talking about sports?

God's Word also urges us to “make sure of the more important things.” (Phil. 1:10) Likening the Christian life course to a long-distance footrace, under inspiration the apostle Paul recommended: “Let us also put off every weight . . . , and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” (Heb. 12:1) His point was that we must avoid needless pursuits, needless weights, that will tire us out. It may be that some of us are simply trying to squeeze too much into already busy lives. So if you often feel tired and under pressure, you might benefit from reviewing how you meet the demands of secular work, the frequency with which you travel for pleasure, and the intensity with which you pursue sports or other leisure activities. Reasonableness and modesty should move all of us to recognize our limitations and keep unnecessary commitments to a minimum.

Would professional sports really fall into this category of modesty? Can it? Some assure us it can. But, did any of the Apostles spend their days in these secular pursuits? Sure they worked. Sure they even had leisure time. But was it their focus?

While playing sports is commendable, and healthy, something more is needed—a good relationship with our Creator. (Eccl. 12:13)
Becoming absorbed in professional sports can rob a Christian of the energy needed to maintain his own spiritual balance and to assist his family. King Solomon observed that “a double handful of hard work” is often accompanied by “striving after the wind.” If a Christian is overly involved in a secular or sports career, he can end up having prolonged, severe stress. Such a person can even become enslaved to to the game to the extent of experiencing burnout. If so, can he really “rejoice . . . and see good for all his hard work”? (Eccl. 3:12, 13; 4:6)

More important, would he have enough physical and emotional strength left to carry out his duties in the family and to engage in spiritual activities?

In addition, when national fervor takes on championships or world cups, whom does God approve? Is it all or one-sided? Does that mean that God listens to 1 Christian's prayer from one team, but not the other? Is that scriptural? Hardly. Is God responsible for someone like Tebow's success? What about another Christian that doesn't have quite the talent in sports? Or even the poor Christian that lives his life in line with Christ's commandments - is God partial? “For a certainty I perceive that God is not partial" - Acts 10:34

Why associate God with something he has nothing to do with then? Sports are sports, fun, exciting, healthy, and for some really talented folks, very lucrative. But is it divine?

Lastly, Jesus Christ acquired no material wealth, prominence, or expertise in one secular facet during his lifetime. He did not gain the approval of most men; nor was he highly regarded by the trendsetters of his day. Do professional sports players really have this outlook or goal?

Thanks for reading.