C.J. Mahaney - Dont Waste Your Sports

I can see it clearly. My feet are firmly planted on the starting block, knees bent, arms hanging loosely at my sides. The water is still. I take a final deep breath, waiting for the gun to go off, anticipating my lunge into the pool.

It takes little imagination to relive this moment. I cant count the number of times I dove into the pool, absolutely intent on winning.

What led me to compete as a swimmer? Well, at first my parents made me do it. They put me on the swim team when I was six. And lets be clearI despised every moment of it, because swimming is pure and monotonous discipline. And I wasnt disciplined. I was a born loafer.

Heres the strange thing: I continued to swim until college, and in spite of my hatred for early morning practices and frigid pools, at every meet I was driven to win. I was elated when I won and depressed when I lost (which was, sadly, much more frequent). I despised swimming. So what explanation is there for my passion to win?

At the time I would have said I was competitive.

What I didnt perceive then was my own passion to be admired. Swimming was merely my stage, my opportunity to impress others with my athleticism. Each event was a platform for drawing attention to myself. And it was no different in the other sports I played (and liked better): baseball, basketball, football. Now, as I reflect on those years, I see more clearly what was in my heart as a young man. I can see how proud I was.

The problem wasnt swimming, or baseball, basketball, or football. These and other sports are gifts from God, and competing in them can and should be a joy. I love playing a variety of sports in the backyard with my son and grandsons. I play golf (which, for me, is a means of cultivating humility). I keep two gloves and a ball in my office, and I play catch in the parking lot so often the UPS guy probably wonders whether I actually work. My familys holiday traditions include a football game the day after Thanksgiving. Everyone plays. Even the ladies. My wife and three daughters play, regardless of cold weather, muddy fields, even pregnancy. (Although Ill admit the game gets shorter every year.)

Sports are a gift from God. But as soon as you introduce the human heart, things get complicated.

Why is it that sports seem to bring out the best and the worst in us? Sports can provide hours of happiness, but they can also ignite impatience, anger, even rage. What gives?

If youve ever asked yourself this question, youre not alone. Erik Thoennes, a professor and former college football player, puts it this way:

I had the delightful experience this week of watching a dozen five-year-old children get a tennis lesson. They were asked by their instructor to simply run forward and then backward over a ten foot span. They did far more than run. Skipping, leaping, bounding, hopping, spinning, laughing, animal imitations, running with closed eyes, dramatically falling, jumping up again, and purposely crashing into one another, all became part of the lesson. When the instructor armed the children with racquets, the fun really began. The racquets quickly became guitars, swords, canes, horses, trombones, rifles, and fishing poles. The lesson continually bordered on becoming unproductive and utter chaos because playing was as instinctual to the children as breathing. The teacher was successful because he appreciated the childrens insatiable need to play, and allowed for copious amounts of it within his instruction.

But its not always like that. Dr. Thoennes points out the dark side of sports:

This week I also read of a father who went to jail for eight years for unintentionally killing one of his sons tennis opponents after drugging the opponent with medication that causes drowsiness. The father, who was doing all he could to ensure the athletic success of his son and daughter, had similarly spiked the water bottles of twenty-seven other rivals over a three year period. The difference between the fun loving instructor and the winning obsessed father could not be more pronounced. And their differences highlight drastically different ways of viewing sport in Western culture.... One appreciates the actual process of playing a sport; the other has sadly turned sport into an ugly expression of human pride,... envy, and malice. What will keep us from turning sport into something ugly rather than beautiful?

Good question.

Sports, at their best, are beautiful. In a 2008 game, Western Oregon University soft ball player Sara Tucholsky hit a three-run home run to give her team the lead, but while trying to touch first base she tore her ACL and collapsed. The rules prohibited her teammates from helping her round the bases. Thats when two of her opponentsincluding Mallory Holtman, the conferences all-time leading home run hitterlifted Tucholsky and carried her around the base path all the way to home plate.

But weve all seen sports turn ugly, too. Maybe you dont know anyone who drugged his opponents water bottles. But turn on ESPN, and on any given night youll hear about steroids, suspensions, and scandals.

So how do we keep sports beautiful? Does God care either way? What are sports all about anyway?

This booklet exists to answer these important questions. My prayer is that by the time were done, well discover answers from the wisdom of Gods Word. Well find real guidance for athletes in the pages of Scripture. Well see that sports, although they bring us great joy, are not actually about us at all. Somethingand Someonemuch more important is in view.