For most of my life it\u2019s been rare to meet someone who is a bigger sports fan than me. As a kid, I played what must have been thousands of hours of hockey and joined in basketball, football, and baseball games every chance I got.<\/p>\n
Once I outgrew the competing phase of my life, the consuming phase took up an even bigger portion of my time. I\u2019m one of those guys who could recount decades of Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, and Stanley Cup Finals champions, could name all the stadiums and coaches and even mascots, could recite stats from years ago in numerous sports, etc.<\/p>\n
Between getting married and the birth of our four children, the time required to be that invested has rapidly faded. But, I\u2019m still a general sports fan and a die hard follower of a couple of teams.<\/p>\n
I give all that context to say two things: 1) I don\u2019t think it\u2019s wrong at all for Christians to enjoy sports, and 2) I\u2019m acutely aware of what it looks like to make an idol out of sports.<\/strong><\/p>\n I want to offer to fellow Christian sports fans a few words of caution about three areas of your life that can be consumed by the idolatry of sports.<\/p>\n Of course, there\u2019s the one I\u2019m sure you\u2019re expecting an article like this to cover – missing worship for sports. And that expectation is valid, because it\u2019s a needed critique. Churches all over America see membership drop as certain youth sports seasons start up. Some members will skip any time their team has a big game that overlaps with worship. I will always be grateful that my parents took a firm stand on this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut my kid is really good! They could get a scholarship or go pro!\u201d First of all, maaaaaaybe. Maybe. The odds are incredibly long. But secondly, that\u2019s not the point at all, really. There is no number of Super Bowl rings at which one can say, \u201cYeah, that was worth more than a devout walk with God.\u201d As Jesus asked, \u201cFor what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?\u201d And while their odds to get to the big show are pretty small, there\u2019s a 100% chance they will stand before God at the judgment. Choose wisely in how you prepare them for the future.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s only three or four Sundays a year!\u201d It might be a small percentage of the Sundays. But it\u2019s 100% of the Sundays in which there\u2019s a conflict. If every time God goes up against sports He loses out, your kids will get the message. What a low view of God it would take to think we can withhold what we owe Him for some silly games.<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s not just about Sunday attendance. Plenty of Christians will tell you they struggle to find time for Bible study and prayer while also being able to give a recap of every big play from their team\u2019s three hour bowl game and reciting the lineups to their 4 fantasy football teams. God has blessed us with hobbies and leisure activities, and the time to enjoy them, but they need to be kept in their right and natural place. Only after the higher obligations to God, family, and work have been met can we find the time to enjoy hobbies properly.<\/p>\n This one largely overflows from the last – where we put our time is generally where we\u2019re going to put our focus.<\/p>\n These kinds of tests reveal the bandwidth we\u2019re dedicating to our different interests. It\u2019s in these manifestations that we can see what we really care about. If I spend more time thinking about and talking about my teams than I do my relationships with God, my wife, and my kids, the priorities are out of line. \u201c<\/span>No other gods before me\u201d (Exodus 20:3) can include the hobbies we love, too.<\/p>\n And everybody around me will see it. My wife and kids will know if sports matter to me more than they do, or if sports are a bigger priority in our home than God. If I take a huge interest in their athletics but don\u2019<\/span>t have much involvement when it comes to their spiritual lives, it will send a message loud and clear.<\/p>\n The kind of focus and care we put into the things we do speaks volumes about what those things mean to us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The year was 1998 and my beloved Denver Broncos looked poised to put up the first 16-0 season in NFL history. Then, out of nowhere, the lowly New York Giants pulled off the upset and brought the winning streak to an end. 9 year old me was devastated. Tears began to well up in my eyes, at which point my mom offered a needed correction: \u201cThis isn\u2019t worth crying over. It\u2019s just a game.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe I can be given a pass for being so young at the time, but unfortunately the passion we have for sports can still come out even as adults. Every year videos go viral of somebody throwing their remote through the television in response to their team losing a big game.<\/p>\n While I\u2019d venture to guess most Christian men don\u2019t take it that far, it\u2019s still considered fairly socially acceptable to spend the rest of the day in a bad mood when your team loses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Frankly, that is flat wrong. If a team full of men you don\u2019t even know lose a game and it leads you to be short-tempered or sullen with your wife and kids, it\u2019s a clear sign sports mean too much to you. If some friendly trash talk from a buddy leads you to snap back in anger, it should put some things in perspective.<\/p>\n It\u2019s ok to care about the results, and caring means we\u2019re going to end up disappointed pretty consistently. I watched those same Denver Broncos lose a Super Bowl by 5 touchdowns a few years ago, so believe me, I know. But there\u2019s no asterisk in the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) for \u201cunless your team just suffered a painful defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n Sadly, sports are one of the primary gods of choice in the world today. If you follow European soccer at all, you see just how easy it is for mankind to turn sports into a full-blown religion. Church attendance is at an all-time low there, but every Saturday and Sunday the entire nation gets dressed in their \u201cworship\u201d garments, migrates to their \u201ccathedral,\u201d and spend two hours together belting out songs, chanting, and engaging in other time-honored rituals. They\u2019re going to church and they don\u2019t even realize it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It should serve as a cautionary tale for us, and a reminder that we are always worshiping someone or something. If it\u2019s not God, it will be something like sports.<\/p>\n So, we must exercise caution and intentionality. Sports are one of many of life\u2019s pleasures God has blessed us with, and, kept in moderation, we can find great joy and camaraderie in them. Let\u2019s just be sure to keep those guardrails up to keep from bowing before them and expecting the kind of fulfillment that can only be found in our walk with God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For most of my life it\u2019s been rare to meet someone who is a bigger sports fan than me. As a kid, I played what must have been thousands of hours of hockey and joined in basketball, football, and baseball games every chance I got. Once I outgrew the competing phase of my life, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":944,"featured_media":244182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,59,35],"tags":[49,318,2367,23,1495,657],"class_list":["post-244181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-christian-living","category-culture","tag-church","tag-entertainment","tag-idol","tag-jack","tag-sports","tag-tv","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n1. Your time<\/b><\/h2>\n
2. Your mental energy<\/b><\/h2>\n
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3. Your emotions<\/b><\/h2>\n