When I was in Liberia, I saw a whole community
celebrate because they had easy access to clean drinking water. The joy was
tangible. It filled the air like a fresh pie in the oven. It permeated my soul.
God was happy. You could feel it. Real celebration. Real praise.
Psalm 149 is a powerful song of praise. It says at
one point: "Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him
with tambourine and lyre! For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns
the humble with salvation. Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy
on their beds" (Psalms 149:3-5 ESV).
In the middle of people celebrating water, it
struck me. We don't celebrate like that. Ever. Except for when our team wins
the Super Bowl, a national championship, a state championship, or something of
that sort. I see it on Facebook. A team wins, and all of the fans celebrate.
Publicly celebrates. Celebrates and they don't care who hears. They're happy.
It's a great time.
Why do we celebrate sports in our society more
than most anything else? Someone celebrating five years of a successful
business that gives people jobs in a community is more important than someone
sinking a game-winning basket. Someone turning their life around from meaninglessness
to Jesus is more important than someone scoring a touchdown. Volunteering at a
soup kitchen is more significant than a walk-off home run.
Maybe we're not invested in the important things
of life like we are in sports. Maybe we care more about our children being
athletic rather than spiritually mature. Often, we would much rather have him
or her win a state championship rather than dedicate their life to serving the
Lord. In a small town like ours, we don't have the obvious idols like they did
in Bible times. In Ephesus, Paul faced the furor of the people who profited off
of the temple to Artemis. But we do have idols that keep people away from
church and being who God wants them to be. We sometimes veer into worshipping
athletic accomplishment instead of God.
A friend of mine told me about a young man in the
ministry. I interviewed this young man for this article, but his name will
remain anonymous because what I am sharing does not portray his parents in a
positive light.
A few years back, this young man had God interrupt
his plans. He holds his state's record in the 800m dash. He went on to win
nationals. And received a full ride to a division one college where he was on
course to pursue his Olympic dream. If he wanted, he could have ran for a
living, getting sponsors once he got out of college. Yet he gave up running a
couple years before his prime.
In typical God fashion, tragedy struck and it made him reevaluate his life. He got in a car accident. There was some damage to his left side. That night, in the hospital bed, he prayed for the first time. The next day he was 100% fine but completely changed. His body hadn't changed one bit, but something happened to his soul in that accident. He then transferred to a smaller Christian college, being a tremendous blessing to the small school's track team. While he was there, he felt that he had to give up running for records and start running completely for God. He then transferred to another college - the college I went to - where they had no track and field program.
In completely pursuing God, he found a great amount of peace. But his parents didn't feel the same way. They had never missed a track meet, flying all the way across the country to cheer him on. Yet the first three times he preached in his home church - the church his parents go to, a church just a five minute drive from his home - they didn't make it. They would not attend to hear their son preach. The support that they show him being in the ministry is not even near the same support that they showed him in his running career.
Imagine investing your life - your time, your
energy - in your kid being a star athlete. And then he gives it up to be a
minister. How awesome would that be! Really, it's awesome! It might be tough to
acknowledge how awesome it is because we misprioritized all of those years, but
that type of spiritual commitment is what we should be striving for in our
children.
I want to be clear. Sports are not evil. This is
not an either/or situation all of the time although God made it that for this
young minister. Our kids don't have to avoid sports to be who God wants them to
be. There are many great Christian athletes out there. But we do need to realize
the dangerous spiritual pitfall that sports can sometimes be. Sometimes we
place sport above God. When we do this, a blessing such as sport can draw us
away from God rather than supplement our total commitment to God. I see people
choose sports over the kingdom of God time and time again. Let us be vigilant
not to do that. Let us not celebrate or value sports over the most important
things in our life. Let us praise God and become people who He takes pleasure
in. Let us learn to celebrate!
