PARADIGM SHIFT

Faith and sports, they seem like incompatible concepts. How can you be a Christian and still go out on the court, field, pitch, track, etc. and try to physically beat your opponent? It’s not easy, that’s for sure. A youth pastor I once served with said that he loved sports “because if you can be a Christian in the face of intense competition, then you can do it anywhere.” Legendary basketball coach John Wooden stated that “sports do not build character; they reveal it.” The athletic field can be a great training ground for life. Athletics give you a stage to show who you are to your teammates, opponents, and to anyone else who follows your sport. You become a “witness” to your own life experiences. Being an athlete automatically brings with it a certain responsibility to be a role model to those who look up to you; the only choice is what you do with the opportunity.

The real key to “Christlike athletics” is having a biblical view of competition. Competition is not about winning at all costs or humiliating your opponent; it is about striving to better yourself by overcoming some sort of contested struggle. Proverbs 27:17 says “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Even those in ancient times recognized that competition brought accountability and balance to society. Also, the ancient Greeks (who actually first developed organized sport) required athletics in their education. They developed sports not only to better the health and wellness of their youth, but athletic competition was considered to be an act of worship. Even the fathers of modern sport, such as James Naismith (the inventor of basketball), were devout Christians, a fact that you would be hard pressed to find on Google. Athletic competition is more than just an activity, it is an manifestation of who you are as a person.

My high school track coach always reminded us that “champions are made when no one is looking.” This is so true in all of life – who you are in public is shaped and sculpted by what you do in private. Are you disciplined in body, mind, and spirit? Are you consistent in effort and attitude whether at practice or on the big stage? Are you competing for your own glory or for God’s glory? These are questions that only you can answer. These are some basic things that you need to wrestle with if you want to learn how to compete in “Christlike athletics.” Let me leave you with this verse:

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. “

- I Corinthians 9:24-27

- A part of the CLAY Team Sports Ministry Christlike Athletics Handbook

Fall: Week One

Seek First the Kingdom

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.“

- Matthew 6:33 (NIV)

This is the core statement in Jesus’ famous “Sermon on the Mount.”  Everything He said there led up to this idea of living for something more than yourself.  In this section, Jesus was addressing where people put their hearts, in earthly possessions or in their faith in God.  Oswald Chambers, in his devotional My Utmost For His Highest, says that these are “the most revolutionary [words] that human ears have ever heard.”  Why, because this goes against the social current of our human nature.  We are taught to always take care of number one, to live for yourself.  But Jesus was a radical dude; He taught His followers to live life upstream.  Max Lucado refers to 2 Chronicles 7:14 in his book Turn and calls us “to turn from self-promotion to God-promotion, to turn from self-reliance to God-dependence, to turn from self-direction to God-direction, and to turn from self-service to repentance.”

You have to start with this in mind, without accepting that true, authentic Christianity is a calling to go against the grain and live for something much larger than yourself.  The guys from dc Talk in the book Living Under God use the illustration of contrasting the colonial settlements of Plymouth, MA and Jamestown, VA.  The Pilgrims of Plymouth were devoted to living for God, and when the going got tough, they were not deterred.  They would leave a legacy of freedom and of unity for generations to come.  On the other hand, the original settlers of Jamestown (the Virginia Company) were only concerned about making money.  However, they also believed that hard work was beneath a “gentleman,” in fact many of the settlers died rather than doing simple things like chopping wood for warmth or digging wells for water.  And when the local gold mine turned out to be full of “fool’s gold” (iron pyrite), they turned their attention to tobacco.  The legacy that they left for future generations was a legacy of slavery and of lung cancer.

What legacy will you leave?  Will you keep your “mind on things above” (Col 3:2) and live for something more than yourself?  Or will you leave a legacy of slavery to sin and to money?  What do you want people to see in your life?

God promises to take care of all of your needs if you only “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.”  I encourage you to look up Matthew 6:19-34 and really let it soak in.  By simply shifting your focus, you can begin to change your life for the better.

This is coming from a recent experience on a long cross-country flight. I have traveled quite a bit during my short life, but with the recent digitalization phase I have been going through, I couldn’t help from having feelings of detachment and withdrawal. In my backpack, I have a laptop, a Blackberry and another cell phone, but I could not use any of them to connect to my new digital world. It didn’t help that I was reading a book about the postmodern context of the 21st century Church.

But while reading that book, my mind wondered off to how my generation (currently in our upper teens / early twenties) is often misunderstood by the Church. It could actually be argued that we are also quite misunderstood about ourselves. We are a generation of stories, and we want to share our stories with others while also participate in their stories. This is what has led to the rapid rise of blogs, texting, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. We want to constantly commune with others, and the technology we have today makes this easier than ever before.

Many older adults cannot see this. The culture that they have experienced was nothing like that of today. They see the rise of wireless communication as a breakdown of personal communication. They don’t understand the reasons behind our constant need to be connected to the rest of the world.

The internet really is quite a new thing in the context of human history, but for my generation, we grew up along side of it. As it grew, we grew; as it opened doors, we walked through them. Same goes for video game, music, photography and video technology. The last twenty years have seen this world change dramatically in regards to technology and the possibilities that comes with that change.

I’ll leave you with this: Now while we have the ability to be constantly connected to our brothers and sisters worldwide, we need to be careful not to squander the opportunity that is in front of us. We live in an age where everyone can have a voice, these new technologies are not controlled by corporations or governments, they are equally controlled by anyone with internet access. They messages that we transmit will naturally reflect what is in our hearts. For the Church, I challenge you to embrace these new technologies as open doors into the personal stories of my generation. For those outside the Church, I challenge you to simply be real and to be open to hearing the “Good Story” that Scripture reveals to us.

So I was sitting in the “Holy Week Chapel” service here at school a couple days ago and found myself wondering why are the services around Easter so dry and formalized.  The concert band and the choir were up there performing, there were lengthy Scripture readings, and many of the students in the room were asleep.  Now I go to a Christian school, but not everybody on campus is a Christian.  Easter is about the resurrection of Christ and how He defeated sin and death to save us!  This is the whole point of the Gospel; if we can’t get this message across to unbelievers, then what hope do we have?  If there was one church service a year that didn’t put people to sleep it should be Easter Sunday!  Easter is to be the day that the Church comes together to celebrate what Jesus did for us through His death and resurrection, but instead it is all about candy and bonnets.

This blog is not merely a commentary, it is meant to challenge people, and this is your challenge for Easter –> CELEBRATE!!!  Be joyful, be happy, show the love of Christ!  Liturgical calendars list the seven weeks after “Easter Sunday” as “Easter Season,” which is supposed to be a time of celebration.   Enjoy Easter Sunday with family and friends, but do not lose that joy and excitement when you return to work or to school on Monday morning.  Remember the cross, and remember the resurrection!

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

- 1 Peter 1:8-9