Practice Makes Progress

By: Jenny Young

I’ve always been an athletic girl playing an array of sports from volleyball to softball to basketball. Basketball, however, has always been my sport of choice. I enjoy the skills developed, the ability to play as a team, the pace, and the creative play. I love controlling the ball in my hands with a bounce or a throw. When I am left to play a sport with my feet, which requires a different skill/mindset, I am often left unbalanced. This becomes a challenge in some sports and can be greatly frustrating for me. I love playing sports and I enjoy playing them well. But over the years, I’ve realized I have a hard time letting myself go and enjoying something without “perfecting” it first.  

You’ve likely heard of the common phrase, “Practice makes Perfect.” It’s one I've heard from a very young age and lived by. I have seen this way of thinking take up more room in my heart and life than I care to admit. The idea of perfection has not only revealed itself through sports, but also through relationships, and through my years of ministry. 

In the last few years, I was pushed out of my comfort zone by coaching something new. Soccer for me is not a natural sport to play or coach. Yet, for the past two fall sports seasons, I have coached a youth kids soccer team. Undoubtedly, some kids know more about the sport than I do! I am learning different things about coaching younger kids. I am learning a sport I know little about. Lastly, I'm learning what I value most about myself and others. 

I have been constantly thinking about how to keep the mission of my ministry in its proper view, yet also discerning my own goals/motives for the kids. There have been challenges during my first few practices as I learn along with the kids I am coaching. The kids may struggle with keeping attention or understanding why we play the way we do. But I hope to make the sport fun for the kids, allowing them to play a different position and get the chance to learn new skills by going through the fundamentals.

This new experience of practice brings a familiar phrase to the forefront, except I prefer a different result. “Practice makes PROGRESS.” Growth and development as an athlete, leader, friend, and individual takes time and practice. Progress does not mean everything will be perfect. Perfection should not be our true measure of growth. I fight to believe this not only for myself, but to help these kids and families believe this as well. Our growth as a team is all about the progress daily and weekly. Our growth is found in the way we talk, the way we play, the way we see each other on the pitch, and the way we approach the practice. 

I am thankful for all of the ways I am reminded of this truth on a practical level, but also on a spiritual level. Jesus was the only perfect man and He would turn to His father continually in prayer. I cannot attain perfection in my own strength, but because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I find salvation from my imperfection. Because of Christ, I can continually approach the Father in prayer for help and comfort in times of needs. When I do, I am strengthened in my pursuits and reminded that in our practice (of sports or anything else), we find freedom in progress not perfection.

Should We Pray to Win?

“Should we pray to win?” was one of the questions from Christianity Today to the Houston Astros Spanish-speaking Chaplain, Juan Jesus Alaniz. The article ran during the 2017 World Series between the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers that the Astros eventually won in the 7th game. To that question in particular Juan responded, “Oh yeah. We’re more than conquerors in Christ Jesus.”

So should we pray to win? Just as with Juan, this is a common question asked of Sports Chaplains, athletes and coaches who declare themselves Christians, or anyone who is in Sports Ministry in general. I want to take a stab at this question and, in doing so, reflect on what can happen if we don’t pray and what can happen if we do. 

What if we don’t pray for wins?

Any athlete or coach is competing because he or she wants to win. That person may or may not want to win at all costs, but the heart desire of competitors is to be honored for their skill. This reality is shown by our longing for trophies like the one that went to the Astros.

With this in mind, if we don’t pray for the win, I would question how well we are acknowledging the desires of our heart. I would wonder just how honest we are being with ourselves or with God about what we really want.

If we do acknowledge this desire to win but don’t pray, we may be closing the door on the possibility through this prayer for God’s transforming power to change our hearts. This is significant. The Story of Redemption tells us we were made for glory and honor but lost that glory when we turned from God. Since that day, our hearts have been searching for glory, apart from God, seen so clearly in the realm of sports and our thirst for championships. Even when a person turns to God in response to his offer to redeem and restore them to glory in Christ, we still struggle with establishing this glory on our own. 

Our prayer for winning may be an expression of that struggle. We may find through our prayer just how badly we want to win. Our prayer may actually expose the self-centered nature of our desire to win and of our request. This realization could open us to our need for turning away from that self-centeredness to God and the pursuit of his will rather than our own.

If we don’t pray, we may miss the opportunity for this needed transformation. This exposing nature of prayer is one of the reasons the Scriptures has verses like the following: 

“Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6

Notice, the writer speaks about WHAT to pray. “In everything” includes the game that is about to be played. 

He also speaks about HOW to pray. “By prayer and supplication” implies a worshipful asking. Worshipful would include coming to God believing he hears our prayers and cares about our prayers. Asking would, in that faith, offer what is on our hearts to him, including our desire to win.

If you don’t pray, let me ask you, “Why don’t you pray to win?”

I have asked others this question and their answers typically boil down to two:

• “God doesn’t care who wins anyway so why pray.”

• “It is too risky to open up that desire. God may deny, even squash it.” 

If you resonate with the first answer, I would ask to think about how you know he doesn’t care and point you to a larger treatise of this subject in Chapter 2 of the book Does God Care Who Wins? 

If you resonate with the second answer, I would ask you to consider your view of God in light of the above verse and the one immediately following it:

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7 

When the writer mentions the “peace of God” and guarding your “hearts and minds in Christ Jesus,” he wants us to see the heart of God for prayer. Prayer is designed to bring us face to face with God, with the result being peace and deepened connection, not fear and distance. Not praying about winning removes us from that audience and the transformational nature of it.

What if we do pray for wins?

If we pray for the win and win, we ought to be free to embrace the win but careful not to let it establish something about our identity. God doesn’t answer the winners’ prayers because they are more deserving of the affirmative answer than the other team’s prayer. God answers these prayers because the wins and the losses are a part of his will, his kingdom coming to “earth as it is heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

With this in mind, winners are free to acknowledge God’s sovereignty over all of creation, including the game, and accept His will with grace and humility embracing and enjoying the glory that comes from winning. At the same time, they should also acknowledge the win as undeserved and just a taste, an echo, of the real glory promised us in Christ, received at the consummation of all things. (Colossians 1:27 – Christ in you the hope of glory.) 

This perspective is important because of the temptation for the winners to let the win establish something about their identity or the quality of their prayers. If we are honest, we can admit an awareness of that temptation and even our succumbing to it by thinking we prayed better or are better when we win. This reality lies deep in our hearts even though it is wrong and is a great distortion of the gospel of Jesus Christ (For a further exposition of this idea, see Chapter 3 of the book Does God Care Who Wins?)

The opposite side of this reality is just as prevalent. If we pray and lose, we can easily think God didn’t answer our prayer because there is something wrong with our prayer. Or worse, there is something wrong with us! Both of these ideas of deserved defeat are just as much a distortion of the gospel and God’s ways for his children as the distortion of deserved victory.  

If we pray and lose, we are instead called to acknowledge God’s sovereignty over all creation, including our game, and trust that God had a higher, better purpose in answering our prayer the way he did. We can accept God’s will with grace and humility, allowing the disappointment to be real and owned. We can acknowledge and allow that disappointment to move us toward longing for the undeserved glory that will one day be ours in Christ at the consummation. 

Should we pray to win? Absolutely. How we pray to win matters. We should pray with an open, humble heart, willing to submit to God’s work of transformation of our hearts and our prayers and God’s good, acceptable and perfect will for us whether we win or lose. 

Great Questions to Ask Yourselves, New Hires, and New Volunteers

I recently ran across this quote from Paul David Tripp in a Resurgence blog that is an excerpt from Tripp’s book,

Dangerous Calling.

Because of what I do, I have heard church leaders, in moments of pastoral crisis, say to me many times, “We didn’t know the man we hired.”

As I read this I was struck by the application of this idea to a broader context than just pastors. First of all, ourselves. I so often see in myself and in talking with others that we really don’t know the person we are. This is also true of the volunteers we recruit and the other people we hire.

To avoid this tendency, Tripp contends, “But what does knowing the man mean? It means knowing the true condition of his heart (as far as that is possible).”

This is no small task, but to aid us in that journey, Tripp gives some great questions to ask ourselves and others. 

Here are the first 10:

1. What does he really love?

2. What does he despise?

3. What are his hopes, dreams, and fears?

4. What are the deep desires that fuel and shape the way he does ministry?

5. What are the anxieties that have the potential to derail or paralyze him?

6. How accurate is his view of himself?

7. Is he open to the confrontation, critique, and encouragement of others?

8. Is he committed to his own sanctification?

9. Is he open about his own temptations, weaknesses, and failures?

10. Is he ready to listen to and defer to the wisdom of others?(For the rest of the list, click here.)

To apply them to ourselves, they simply become:

1. What do I really love?

2. What do I despise?

3. What are my hopes, dreams, and fears?

4. What are the deep desires that fuel and shape the way I do ministry?

5. What are the anxieties that have the potential to derail or paralyze me?

6. How accurate is my view of himself?

7. Am I open to the confrontation, critique, and encouragement of others?

8. Am I committed to my own sanctification?

9. Am I open about my own temptations, weaknesses, and failures?

10. Am I ready to listen to and defer to the wisdom of others?

So let’s break this tendency and ask ourselves and others these questions. We hope this resource will be a helpful tool in your ministry! As you do, remember the qualifier Tripp adds “as far as that is possible” and cry out for insight to the God “who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.” Psalm 33:14,15

How to Measure Success in Ministry ?

​​I came across this on the 9 Marks website. I really appreciated the tone of this because I fear the church looks to the business world and their metrics too much in trying to measure ministry. Here’s the principles they listed:

1. Measuring the supernatural? Supernatural fruitfulness cannot always be measured.

2. Success equals faithfulness. One of our most important criteria for success should be whether or not a man is faithfully preaching the Word and living a life of conformity to the Word.

3. More than heads in attendance. The number of people attending a church is not the only factor to be considered, but how much members are growing in holiness, how many leaders are being raised up, how many members are leaving for the mission field, and so forth. Such factors are far richer and more complex, and are often better indicators of the faithfulness and success of a man’s ministry.

4. Success not always visible. A faithful and “successful” ministry may not present obvious and immediate fruit. Adoniram Judson didn’t see a single convert for seven years. Moreover, initial responses can prove hugely deceptive over time (Matt. 13:1-23). And how much “fruit” did the prophet Jeremiah get to see?

5. But visible fruit should be considered. God gives different gifts to different people. It is entirely possible for a man to labor faithfully at something he’s not gifted to do. In such a case, there will be little visible fruit, which should be considered in assessing his long-term plans and support. Not all Christians should ask the church to set aside a portion of their incomes to support them for full-time ministry. Visible fruit is a part of that consideration.

6. What’s the bottom line? Success in ministry primarily means faithfulness, but attempting to humbly and cautiously evaluate the fruit of a man’s ministry should play a supporting role in weighing success in ministry.

At CEDE SPORTS, measuring success is one of the issues we help Sports Ministries deal with by developing an appropriate MEASURE for success (that includes some of the factors mentioned above), an appropriate METHOD for using that measure, and an appropriate MOTIVE for the whole endeavor.  Below is a video that looks at some of those ideas.

Going for the Gold: Measuring Success in Sports Ministry on Vimeo. If we can further help you in measuring the success of your ministry, please contact us.

Christianity–Before, During, or After the Game?

100 Division III athletes, all who identified themselves as Christians, were asked a series of questions that probed into the impact of their Christianity on their sports involvement. While the questions weren’t asked in exactly these three categories – BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER the Game – the answers broke down into these three.

The good news – 100 of these athletes said their Christianity affected them BEFORE and AFTER the game. They prayed, they read something, they talked to someone specifically.

The bad news is how many of them said their Christianity affected them DURING the Game. How many do you think? By the fact that I call it bad news, the number is low. Just how low is it?

Zero.

That’s right. None of the players saw their Christianity as affecting them during their time on the court, in the field.

This seems rather too difficult to believe. Here are two supporting stories for you skeptics:

1) I shared this research recently at a Coaches Training. Afterwards, a young, tall woman approached me. Here is what she said:

I played D2 Volleyball at a “Methodist” school. We would ALWAYS say the Lord’s Prayer before the game as a team, I personally would pray for strength and safety as well before the game. If we won we would thank the Lord for the win—— But never once did we pray DURING the game. I found that every interesting and actually had never realized it until Bob made me think about it! There is no reason why we shouldn’t ask God for strength and endurance DURING a game! We should also give him thanks after a game (even if we lost) for him giving us the strength to do our best! Glory should be given to God before, during, and after all games win or lose!

2) In a Sports Illustrated article in February 2013, one collegiate athlete identified as being involved in a Christian Sports Ministry Group said in response to the researcher, Sharon Stoll of the University of Idaho, when she asked about the role of intimidation in sports:

“Ma’am, my job is to kick them in the head, knee them in the groin, stand over them and tell them never to get up.” Stoll then asked how the linebacker would play against Jesus. “And the guy looked at me and said, ‘Ma’am, I’m as Christian as the next guy, but if I’m playing Jesus the Christ, I play the same way. I leave God on the bench.”

“I leave God on the bench.”

What we are saying in all this is that God belongs outside the lines of the fields or courts, not inside. Once a player steps across that line and onto the field or court, we leave our Christianity behind.

However, that perspective is not the way God sees it!

“Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink (or play football or volleyball) do it all for the glory of God.” 1Corinthians 10:31 (with the parenthetical comments added)

God sees the largest to the smallest aspect of everything we do, including our sports, as connected with his glory. This is the way he designed all of life. This is why Paul calls us to this connection, in recognition of the difference between God’s and our perspective.

Yet, we shouldn’t point only to athletes in discussing this problem. The compartmentalized view of life with its secular/sacred dichotomy is alive and well all around today’s Christianity.

If you don’t believe me, look at the stats on how we treat money and what we give or how we treat marriage, or how we conduct business. God is often left out in these arenas and considered irrelevant just as he is on the athletic fields and courts. George Barna has done a great job of providing the stats to fully back up this assertion.

If you are troubled by all this, great. Honestly, I share it with you for that very purpose.

We need a cry for a different reality. We need a cry for a different paradigm – one where Christianity and the gospel aren’t segregated from or injected into sports but rather integrated with sports.

Reaching People Through the "Middle Ground" of Sports

Do you ever wonder – “How do I really go about reaching the people around me?”  or more broadly, “How does our church reach the culture in which God has placed us?”

At CEDE SPORTS, we want everyone in sports ministry to wrestle with these questions, whether you are in sports ministry as a vocation or as a volunteer.

To help guide us in answer to those questions, I ran across a webcast with Tim Keller and Gabe Lyons where they discussed the topic of living in a post-Christian world.  Below are some excerpts:

Tim Keller:

“My understanding of how you reach culture is Christians have to be extremely like the people around them, and yet at the same time extremely unlike them… If Christians are not unlike them, they won’t challenge the culture, but if they’re not like them, they won’t persuade the culture. Now, hitting that middle ground is hard.”

“Before the coming of Christ believers were culturally different…Christ comes, and now you can be a Christian in every tongue, tribe, people, and nation. Jesus gets rid of the ceremonial laws and all those things that made Christians culturally strange. In that sense, [now] your neighbor is like you.”

“There’s got to be a balance. On the one hand … traditional Christian marketplace ministries have put all the emphasis on spiritual support, and that’s fine and very important…But rather than just simply evangelizing, recycling and nurturing people inside their vocation, they ought to be asking ‘how does the gospel affect the way in which I do my work, how does it shape my work?’”

Read more here.

First of all, in looking at what Keller says about being like but unlike, I thought, ‘what a great place sports provides for doing just this.‘

When we use sports as a bridge to allow people to get close to us, one of the most consistent comments I hear from converted adults is “I found out these people were just like me.” Sports can provide an arena of regular observation for the unconverted to cast down the stereotypes they hold about Christians – if we take the time to reach over the bridge of sports and get to know the unconverted and allow them close enough to get to know us.

Sports can also provide a great place for us to show that we are unlike them. If we tear down the idol of sports in our hearts, if we play for the glory of God rather than our glory, if we make it our goal to show God off in the way we play, then the unconverted will see something very different from themselves.

This difference goes far beyond outer behavior like pointing to the sky when something good is done.  It comes from deep within the heart of a redeemed person who has allowed God to sanctify them by spreading that redemption to the way they play, coach or spectate sports. Sports – because of its power to cut open the heart – gives us a great arena to display this difference.

With this redemption, Keller, in commenting about workplace ministries, emphasizes the need to focus not just on spiritual support but also asking the question, “How does the gospel affect the way in which I do my work, how does it shape my work?”

Agreeing with this idea, at CEDE SPORTS we apply that question to sports by asking, “How does the gospel affect the way in which I do sports, how does it shape my work?”

These two ideas – 1) being like and unlike  2) where our unlikeness is focused on my sports looking differently through the impact of the gospel – are why we focus on both the bridge (like) and the laboratory (unlike) of sports.

If you are looking for some ideas on how to better utilize sports to create this middle ground, contact us at CEDE SPORTS. We exist to “redeem the idol of sports and those who play them by leading a global movement of gospel centered sports ministries in local churches.”

Coaches' Creed

A creed is defined as “a brief authoritative formula of religious belief.”  Throughout the history of the church, creeds have been used to help Christians understand theology by preserving truth and pointing out heresy.  You can read about some of the more popular Christian creeds here.

With this in mind, here’s my attempt to create a Coach’s Creed.  In no way am I suggesting that this creed stands in the same company as those listed in the link above.  This is merely my attempt to articulate a formula for coaches that helps apply the gospel to their coaching.  I’m sure it will change over time.  I would love your feedback.

The Coaches’ Creed:

As a coach, I was created to image God but my coaching is broken because I’m broken.  Jesus died for my brokenness and is now calling me to spread the fame of God in my coaching as I display his character.

This is short intentionally.  It’s meant to be something that can be remembered and recited.  It’s meant to be something that could be prayed before a game.

The creed reflects what the gospel has to say about coaching through the big story of the gospel: creation, fall, redemption, and consummation.

“As a coach, I was created to image God…” [Coaching through the lens of Creation]

From Genesis 1 & 2, we learn that God created us in his image.  All of creation is good but humans were very good.  We were the crown jewel of his creation and we were given a job, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”  This mandate is not just an agricultural or even a primitive command for early man.  Rather, it’s meant to be applied to every Christian of every age.  It’s just as applicable in the 21st century as it was at the creation of the world.  And, it certainly includes every realm of life, including coaching.

“…my coaching is broken because I am broken.” [Coaching through the lens of the Fall]

We know from Genesis 3 that sin entered the world through the choice of Adam and Eve.  Sin has tainted every good thing God created, not just humans.  That means that nature is somehow tainted by sin (see Romans 8).  It also means that the whole system of culture is marred by sin, including sports.  Including coaching.  It’s not a question of if my coaching is broken but how my coaching is broken.

Jesus died for my brokenness and is now calling me to spread the fame of God in my coaching as I display his character. [Coaching through the lens of Redemption and Consummation]

This is the good news of the gospel.  As Romans 5:8 says, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  1 Timothy 2:5-7 says, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all…”  Yes, Jesus died for my brokenness.  The cross though not only defeated death but also overcame all the curse of sin.  Jesus has reconciled all things (see Colossians 1:15-20).  This includes broken systems.  As a result, I am redeemed as a coach and my coaching can be redeemed.  How?  As Bob Schindler says, “The ultimate reason for coaching is to glorify God – to spread the fame of God in this world by displaying his multifaceted character as you coach.”  Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, I am able to display God’s character in my coaching.

How Do I Know When Sports Has Become an Idol? Part 4

Sports and Idolatry – In Part 1,  Part 2, and Part 3 of “How do you know when sports are an idol?”, I have tried to make this connection and equip you to deal with this idolatry. I contend that three ideas are important to embrace when discussing sports and idolatry. They are

1) Understanding sports as an idol 

2) Examine our deep emotions around sports – especially our anger 

3) Own the passions of our heart – especially for our own glory

In this post, I want to unpack the third idea – Own the passions of our heart – especially for our own glory.When I examine the deeper emotions surrounding my sports, one of the things I find when I go beneath even the deep beliefs in my heart is a passionate drive to excel or win. If I probe around about that longing, I discover this longing to excel is really a longing for glory – for greatness and the recognition by others of that greatness.

This is where it gets both interesting and hard. If I am really honest, even as a Christ follower this longing for glory is not very often about God’s glory but instead is very often about my glory. I want what winning and sports’ achievements bring from our culture – the respect, the honor, the admiration, the trophies – or, in other words, the glory, my glory.

It is hard to acknowledge this because to do so shows the self-centeredness of my heart – the orientation of my longings toward me. It is interesting to think about this orientation in light of God’s original design in Creation and the corruption from the Fall. We were created with glory, the glory of being made in the image of God, to represent God before all of creation. This greatness was bestowed on mankind by God and was intrinsic. We were to express this intrinsic glory as we moved in the fulfillment of the Dominion Mandate – to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth. At this point, the orientation of our hearts’ longings was toward God and his glory.

However, in our pursuit to be “like God” without God, to experience the shalom of the Garden while being morally autonomous, in the Fall we sinned and lost our glory. We now “fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

One of the results was to turn the orientation of our hearts away from God and toward other things and ultimately toward ourselves. Paul says it this way in Romans 1:25 – “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever to be praised. Amen.” Paul is saying we worship or look to other things, including sports, rather to God for the fulfillment of our heart’s desires.

But he also is saying more. He is saying our hearts got reoriented. No, actually they got broken. Not broken like in being hurt but broken as in not working right. They are drawn away from God and to “idols” to satisfy these deep longings. When I understand this reality, I recognize that possibly the greatest struggle in dealing with the idol of sports is the struggle I have with ME – my self-centeredness, my selfish orientation to my heart’s longings, and in particular my pursuit of my own glory. At the core of diagnosing the idols of my heart in sports is this acknowledgement. My heart is broken – foolishly oriented to other things than God in my pursuit of glory.

Now the good news of the Gospel is that God not only forgives of all this idolatry, he also gives us a new heart, a heart of flesh that is alive to God, replacing our broken one, the cold, lifeless heart of stone. (See Ezekiel 36: 22-32) He makes it possible for us to experience not only our behavior to be modified in our sports, but for our hearts and the behavior they drive in our sports to be transformed.

This transformation doesn’t happen all at once. It is a process but this transformation process can be actuated in the exposing environment of sports if we move toward confession (acknowledgement of wrongdoing and the deep lies and self-centeredness driving us), repentance (the turning away from wrongdoing, the lies and the self-centeredness at work), and faith (embracing the truth in the place of those lies and moving in God-centeredness) in our sports, all the while asking God to enact this transformation of our hearts that he alone can bring about.

While the disease of sports idolatry is never fully overcome in this life, we can make progress in stemming the spread and actually reducing the impact.

So for the glory of God in redeemed sports, lets agree to 1) assume sports are an idol 2) examine our deep emotions around sports 3) own the passions of our heart. For God has promised –  “Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I have made you, you are my servant…I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” Isaiah 44:21,22  “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your idols.”  Ezekiel 36:25

How Do I Know When Sports Has Become an Idol? Part 3

Sports and Idolatry – In Part 1 and Part 2 of “How do you know when sports has become an idol?”, I have tried to make this connection and equip you to deal with this idolatry. I contend that three ideas are important to embrace when discussing sports and idolatry. They are:

1) Understanding sports as an idol

2) Examine our deep emotions around sports – especially our anger

3) Own the passions of our heart – especially for our own glory

In this post, I want to unpack the second idea – Examine our deep emotions around sports – especially our anger.

We all know it – you can’t hide your heart on the field, the court, or whatever environment you compete in. Sports cut us open and what is in us comes spilling out at the referees, the players on the opposing team and our own team, coaches, even at ourselves. This exposing quality is one of the reasons I love sports.

While this reality is apparent, what is interesting is that I don’t find a lot of people who probe into what is underneath those thoughts and emotions, especially our emotions.And there is always something underneath our emotions. Emotions are never independent. They are always generated by beliefs.

Let’s take anger. It was Larry Crabb, Christian psychologist, who first alerted me to the fact that anger is the result of a blocked goal. It is my emotional response to the belief that the goal I am pursuing is being blocked. (A goal is something I believe I want or need to have and pursue.) When we don’t get what we want, when our efforts to achieve our goal are stymied, we get angry. The deeper the demand for that goal, and the deeper the resulting anger when it is blocked.

Now take that understanding to the athletic field. A coach gets really angry at an official’s call. Why? The official blocked the goal of the coach. What is the goal? While I am not sure, what I do know by the emotion is that, whatever the goal, it is important to the coach.

The depth of the emotion, whether expressed or not, is determined by the depth of the goal, the importance of that goal to the person. When I see deep anger, whether in me or others, I know the goal is really important – it is something I really need to have, have to have.

Now let’s tie that emotion to idolatry. Remember our definition of an idol – “If I have that, then I will be happy, valued, significant, etc.” I think I have to have “that” and “that” becomes an idol.

For most of us who play, watch or coach sports, the “that” is winning. (This is not the exclusive “that”, for even “having a good time” can be a “that” – a thing I have to have. Winning is just the “that” I will address now.) Therefore, when we don’t win, when someone gets in the way of our winning (including ourselves), we get angry at whoever or whatever got in the way. Anger reveals the reality of the idolatry in our sports, in this case the idolatry of winning. The deeper the anger, the deeper the idolatry, the more important the idol.

Next time you are watching, playing, coaching and you feel deep emotion, acknowledge it. Don’t run from it. Press into it by asking yourself, “Why am I feeling this?” Look for the beliefs that drive the emotion.

If it is anger, ask yourself, “What is the goal that is being blocked?” “Why is that goal so important that I feel this anger so deeply?”

The beliefs that you find underneath the emotions reveal the possible idols of our hearts. Acknowledge to God the “thats” (like winning) that you find, that were revealed through your emotions like anger. This is a confession. Turn away from, say no to these beliefs that take good things (like winning – a good desire but a bad goal) and make them ultimate things, making them idols in our hearts. This is repentance.

This begins the process of dealing with our idolatry of sports. In Part 4, we will look at how deep this process of confession and repentance needs to go if we really want to break the tie between idolatry and our sports.

How Do I Know When Sports Has Become an Idol? Part 2

Sports and Idolatry – hopefully you are connecting these two ideas.

In Part 1, I said there are three important ideas we need to embrace in order to diagnose the idolatry of sports. They are:

1) Understanding sports as an idol 

2) Examine our deep emotions around sports – especially our anger 

3) Own the passions of our heart – especially for our own glory.

In this post, I want to unpack the first idea – Understanding sports as an idol.

To begin, let’s go back to the coach, who, when asked if he had a problem with sports as an idol, quickly and emphatically responded, “NO!!” The coach seemed to assume that wasn’t even a possibility by his response. This denial goes far beyond just this coach, however.

Tim Keller counters to such a contention or assumption in Counterfeit Gods –

“I am not asking whether or not you have rival gods. I assume that we all do; they are hidden in every one of us…. In Romans 1:21-25, Paul shows that idolatry is not only one sin among many, but what is fundamentally wrong with the human heart.”

Since the fall, our hearts have been idol factories, seeking something, many things, other than God to fulfill its longings for meaning, love, significance, security, and, what is often left off this list, glory. We were made for glory. We lost glory at the fall (remember Romans 3:23 – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”). We pursue glory in “all the wrong places” to fill that void.

Sports today demonstrate one of the most often used and clearest methods for establishing this lost glory. We strive to become champions, winners, first place, the best, the highest – whether it is in world class arenas for Olympians and Super Bowls or in neighborhood courts for a community league or a pick up game.

However, rather than looking into our sports for the reality of this idolatry because of what is “fundamentally wrong with the human heart,” we say things like, “I am just competitive,” or “I am just playing hard” and deny the reality of our idolatry.

When we won’t even consider the possibility that our sports are an idol, we live out what God says of idolaters in Isaiah 44. In verse 13-20, God uses a carpenter as an example. The carpenter takes what God has provided (wood) and uses part of it for his job, part of it as fuel to warm himself, and part of it to cook his food, all within the purposes of God.

Yet, rather than stopping there, the carpenter then takes the rest and makes “a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me; you are my god.” (verse 17)

Now, the carpenter doesn’t really understand that he is doing something wrong, nor does he contemplate the possibility. “Their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say….’Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?’” (verse 18-20)

In the sports world, we don’t see, we don’t stop to think and ask, we won’t even ask, “Is this thing I play, watch, or coach an idol?”

So will you ask –“Are my sports an idol?”

Will you allow God to show you how you have taken his provision, sports, and not stopped with the design that God had in mind, but have fashioned it into a place for your glory, not his?

Will you ask God to open your eyes, to give you understanding, to give you the courage to ponder and be honest and ask the question, “Is this thing I play an idol?”

Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series where we will unpack examining our deep empotions around sports—especially anger.