Sportianity: The Religion of Sports

I was recently given an article entitled "Whatever Happened to Play" by Shirl James Hoffman. I wanted to write this to more articulate my response to this article and what I witness day in and day out in the context of working with youth. I hope this generates discussion and thinking but if not at least it helps me think through this subject.
This whole matter of sports has become a huge area of contention for me as a youth pastor and father. I personally love sports and enjoy watching and participating in sports. I want my children to enjoy sports as well. However what I am seeing today is enjoyment of sports to an extreme that I believe is extremely unhealthy and is destroying the family and individual lives as well. Sports today has turned into a religion one that Hoffman calls "Sportianity". He gives some just crazy examples of this in his article which you can find at the Christianity Today website. I am blown away by the sheer dedication and commitment that many families and people make to sports starting at a very young age. I know students and children who have practice every night and sometimes mornings as earlier as 6am before school starts. I know 8 year olds who have games 3 or more nights a week. I know students who are playing 60-90 games a summer in softball or baseball. The kicker for me is that when I talk to some parents about their family or just their child coming to church on Sunday or Wednesday I often get back from them that it is to much to commit to and I am asking an aweful lot of students. Yet these same students are the ones described above. Families skip church to watch a certain game or go to a certain tournament. Students can't go on mission trips or help out in VBS because they have sports camp during the summer. Don't get me wrong, as Hoffman says "Youth sports programs certainly provide worthy experiences for young people, but with increasing frequency they seem to spin out of control." This is what is going on today. Sports is out of control and the sad part to me is that parents and students are not standing up to it and saying "NO". Hoffman states, "Evangelicals in the sports community have to often been followers rather than leaders, adopters of the dominant ethos rather than trendsetters who challenge it." To which I say amen. I absolutely believe that if parents and students would stand up to the status quo and say no things would change. Because what team is going to bench their star athletes if they say no and I am going to church instead of practice tonight. Please understand I am not calling us to stop sports all together, but to bring balance back in order to save our families and children from a self-destructive lifestyle that renders families from spending quality time together and students from missing opportunities that in the long run will matter more. There is no doubt that sports can and are a good thing but like anything when taken to extreme can destroy the very ones who are taking it there. Sportianity will always exist but for those of us who claim to follow Christ we must turn from the idolatry of sports and turn to the Worship of God and allow that worship to direct our choices and commitments.

Knowing Him: Temporal Events 2 Accomplish Eternal Purposes

Luke 2:1-20 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

It always blows me away how the most seemingly obscure parts of the Bible can be some of the most important. In this case it blows me away the way God works. Little did Caesar know that he was playing an important part in accomplishing an eternal purpose. How amazing is God's sovereignty and the mysterious ways that He accomplishes eternal purposes. I look back over my life and see how temporal events accomplished eternal purposes and for which I am thankful. However there are some events that I wish were different, events that hurt, events that led to some very difficult situations but always led to the good. It's in these events that I must trust God and allow His eternal purpose to be played out. The question is do I really believe that God will work all things together for good? My prayer is that no matter what comes my way I will trust God that He knows what is best and that He has my best in mind.

Father help me to trust you no matter what so that you can accomplish your eternal purposes through me.