Sport is a very powerful element in societies around the world. People are transformed emotionally by it, and the extremes of rage and ecstasy are not at all uncom­mon with sports. An image from several years ago that has stayed with me is the one of the rescued Chilean min­ers. When they were finally rescued from deep under­ground, one came out of the capsule and immediately fell to his knees and prayed. Moments later, that same miner was shown lying on a stretcher clutching the Bible in one hand and waving the banner of his favourite football club in the other, his face beaming with joy.

Purpose⤒🔗

This article is intended to provoke reflection on how we think about sports, both professional sports and school sports, since our attitude often trickles down. I would like to point out that I will be making some generaliza­tions and it will be up to you to determine to what extent the generalization applies to you or not and whether it is a fair generalization. Also, the tone of this article may appear quite negative towards sports, but my intention is to help us think about an area of life that exerts a lot of influence on many of us and that requires pointing out some of the negatives. An article by John Jagersma and published in Reformed Perspective (July 2008) is a more positive article focused on school sports specifically. For additional context, I coach sports, and my older children are actively involved in school sports.

Every sport, starting from the youngest ages and the simplest levels, is structured around identifying the win­ner. The Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, World Series, World Cup, Olympics, etc. are the pinnacle of sports but local tournaments, zone or district championships, provin­cials, and nationals all precede these. The existence of this focus on winning is crucial to understanding the comments that follow in this article. If we are honest, a primary goal of sports is to win. For instance, during a game, we hear, "What's the score?" or after a game, people's first question often is, "Did you win?" or, more subtly, "How did you do?" The closer one gets to the point of winning a championship, the greater the pressure will be to compromise values. We have recently been reminded of this with Lance Armstrong's "confession." This is seen most clearly or easily in individual sports since there the outcome can most easily be manipulated. Dop­ing in sports has been widespread for years, and an ath­lete that tests positive and insists he/she took no drugs is hardly believed. Winning is the name of the game. I do recognize that for many people involved in sports, the enjoyment of the game is also of significance and that at younger ages character development is an important emphasis for many parents and coaches.

Questions←⤒🔗

So let's take a look at a number of questions to help analyze our thoughts/belief about sports. The format of this article is a series of questions followed by comments. It is worth noting at the outset that we often view ques­tions as only having a right or wrong answer. This is true for some factual questions; however, many questions will have answers with more variation in them.

Why do sports matches produce such a powerful impact or effect on people?←↰⤒🔗

In Mitch Albom's book, Tuesdays with Morrie, he shares an anecdote about a college sports—match. The home team fans were yelling, "We are number one, we are number one!" A person stood up and yelled back, "What's wrong with being number two?"

I suspect some people will read this anecdote and think, if you ask the question, you obviously don't under­stand sports. Being number one is the goal. Others may think, good question, what is wrong with being num­ber two? In fact, what is wrong with being in last place? Others will say they are just cheering. The bottom line is that there is nothing wrong with being number two. In the Olympics sometimes you see people come in second and they are ecstatically happy. Other times the second place Olympian seems disappointed. Why do those different re­sponses happen? A reason might be that the happy person believes they did their best and that is what makes them glad. Being number two is simply a bonus. Possibly, they are happy because they did not expect to do so well. The one who is not happy may be unhappy because he felt he did not do his best, or because he is a poor sportsman, or maybe because he bases his happiness on a win-lose mod­el, where "if I am not the winner I must be the loser." That last kind of thinking comes from a mindset that constant­ly compares itself to others. As a result, being number one is all that matters. Loser means more than having scored fewer points than the winner; it is a judgement of his per­son, his value as a human being.

This way of thinking points to a fundamental danger of competition. Competition is based on the model of one winner and lots of losers. Can you compete without the thought and goal of beating the other team? How many teams have gone out and maintained the goal of simply doing their best without resorting to making winning their true goal? Society has tried to make competition "nicer" by providing levels, like being the division or conference champions although you did not become overall cham­pion. The very name "consolation rounds," however, sug­gests a significant level of grief associated with losing. What do you do when you lose the consolation round? Are you then inconsolable? At some point, some team is coming in dead last and people simply don't have much in the way of words of encouragement for them. They feel a kind of embarrassment for them. The feeling of "you lost and that is not good" is what comes through no mat­ter how careful or kind people are. Being second or third last is no great glory either, but how often don't we take comfort, albeit pretty hollow comfort, in the fact that at least we weren't dead last.

Can a coach, player, parent, or fan uphold multiple goals such as glorifying God, winning, getting fit, giv­ing equal weight, all at the same time? (I know I appear to be making the assumption that winning cannot be glorifying God. Feel free to explore that question on your own. I do not make that assumption.)←↰⤒🔗

We typically number our goals and prioritize them. We live in a culture that rewards winners and pays little attention to losers. When we are not yet competitive, it is theoretically possible to hold multiple goals simultan­eously, but that possibility changes very quickly as the stakes rise, even at the level of young children. We have probably all heard stories of parents behaving badly at their children's games or of very competitive preschool or primary school aged children.

Generally speaking high school sports, as I have ex­perienced them as a player (years ago!) and currently as a spectator, have been very positive; nonetheless, the central place of winning comes up again and again. I am thinking of the careful point-counting by both players and spectators, criticism of the referee, rolled eyes, fin­ger-pointing, medal ceremonies, etc. Another example is how the various school teams report how they did on their weekend play days or tournaments. If the team won a majority of the games played, they announce some­thing like, "We played four games and won all of them," or "We won three of the four games." If they lost the majority of games they report, "We played and had fun" (typically said with an apologetic or awkward smile and hesitation). Without reading too deeply into comments, there indisputably appears to be some level of shame at reporting that your team lost more games than they won. What does that suggest as being the goal of the team?

I doubt that God is glorified by our winning just as I doubt that he is shamed by our losing. He is glorified by us putting him first, and I think that the way we do that in sport is to remove winning as the goal and to make doing our very best in accordance with the greatest commandment (Matthew 22) as the goal. I believe that it is impossible to hold the goals of winning and glorifying God equally; and going further, I think that many of us need to intentionally create a large distance between them to ensure that winning does not overtake the only goal worth holding. I am prepared to go further yet, and to say that winning may not be your goal. Even allowing talk of winning and losing is in my opinion harmful to the goal of glorifying God by doing your best. Hard words, but bear with me if you will.

Charles Spurgeon in his devotion for January 7 (Mor­ning by Morning) talks about what it means to live for Christ (Philippians 1:21). That devotion is well worth reading in connection with this point.

What would be lost from participating in sports if winning was removed as a goal?←↰⤒🔗

Many fans would say that the intensity of the game would be lost. The desire to win, they argue, drives play­ers beyond their limits and results in fantastic memor­able moments from sport. The desire to win, however, also leads to cheating, dirty play, theatrics, pushing the limits, and the intentions of the rules. If doing our abso­lute best in accordance with the greatest commandment were our goal, I think the intensity of the game would be increased and the game more enjoyable to watch and to play.

What does glorifying God look like in sports?←↰⤒🔗

This question is too big for an article. It is the kind of question one could write a book about. I will, however, make a small start. There are lots of aspects to consider since this question applies to the spectator, the player, the coach, the parent, the community and even the country.

The place to start has to be the greatest command­ment. So how do you apply that? How does this impact you as a spectator? Do you cheer as loudly as possible for "your" team or for all good plays regardless of the team that did them? Do you worry about calls and scorekeep­ing errors to the point that they bother you and change your attitude towards the game and the officials? As players, do you celebrate errors by the other team, for instance, an ace in volleyball? How do you interact as a player while in the game? What is an appropriate "game face"? A friendly open face or the intense "get out of my way or I'll crush you" face? Can you have a smile or at least a pleasant look on your face and play your hardest? The New Zealand All Blacks haka (if you are not familiar with this, YouTube has plenty of videos of it) may be the most obvious example of aggressive game face in sports, but very few players have a game face that is consistent with the great commandment to love. This game face tends to get more and more aggressive as you move up the levels in sports.

Often so much of our self is tied up in the game even for the fans. Parents make the news for outrageous be­haviour; riots and fights happen. We don't like being bested by the other team; we get angry because the other team taunts us, plays dirty, or cheats. If we are losing, we imagine that the other team is not making honest calls or that the referee is clearly favouring the other team. As in other areas of life, we are not prepared to admit that we are the problem; that our desire for winning is mak­ing us sin instead of showing love. We talk negatively about the other team or referees, or we try to harm them physically. To justify our behaviour, we come up with all sorts of reasons, none of which are consistent with God's Word. The best test of our Christianity will come in the most difficult games against the most unpleasant teams or individuals. That is when the rubber hits the road - the rest is just warm-up.

How have we conformed to the ways of the world in sports instead of been transformed by the Word of God? Do we accept, allow, and promote a double standard in our lives when it comes to sports?←↰⤒🔗

The short answer is absolutely. We say that religion is important and that sport is just a game, but how often do we show the same zeal for God that we do for sports? Do we stay up late to study the Bible, to discuss issues of faith with our kids? Annually we commit hours of our week especially during the Stanley Cup playoffs, World Cup, Super Bowl, and Grey Cup, but how often do we take that amount of time, discussion intensity, sports mem­orabilia such as shirts, mugs, etc., and encyclopedic knowledge of players and teams and apply those behav­iours to family devotions? Do we arrange our schedule and skip meetings for church or family matters as easily as we do for a "key" game? We might make special trips to sports matches, but how often do we set aside that time, money, and commitment to specifically serve God somewhere? My point is not that it is wrong to watch the playoffs or to travel to a sport match, but that our words and deeds often have a double standard and that our children are learning from us.

We easily show a double standard when we play or cheer for a team. With most sports matches, there is often some little drama about how this player or that team is dirty, unfair, etc. Beards are grown, certain clothes worn. Some players on a team decide that it is their job to teach a lesson to a particular player or take him out. Tempers flare, the sixth and ninth commandments get flung aside, but somehow people don't see anything wrong with it; or if they do, they try to justify it. Behaviour that they wouldn't think appropriate at the jobsite, in the commun­ity, or somewhere else is for some reason fine in the game. The passion of the game defeats the passion to surren­der ourselves to God and to holiness. Sadly some of our "church" hockey or soccer leagues and tournaments have been known for this behaviour. At this point, I think of Matthew 5:29-30, where we are told to cut off our hand or gouge out our eye if they are leading us into sin. This passage is in a section about adultery, but I think it can be applied to any part of our life. Put to death your sin and remove that which causes you to stumble, and then you can begin to enjoy sports in a God-pleasing way. If you can't, then maybe sports has to go from your earthly life so that you can enjoy it as it was meant to be in the new life on the new earth.

How can parents make the best use of sports to cultivate their children's lives of faith?←↰⤒🔗

Here is the place to reinforce that sport is not inher­ently evil; it has positive aspects to it. Just as it is the love of money that is a root of all kinds of evil rather than money itself, so it would be for sports. For sports, the equivalent saying might be that the love of winning in sports is a root of all kinds of evil. This may be an overstatement, but try and see the point.

So, to develop our children's lives of faith means that parents should ensure that they encourage their children to enjoy the game, to put their best effort into every mo­ment of their time playing it and practising it, and to em­phasize loving your neighbour as yourself — which means good team play and being open and friendly with the other teams. It means to exercise self-discipline when errors are made or when wrongs are done by others, to apologize when they themselves do wrong, and to play without an eye on the scoreboard or without criticism for the refereeing. It means to cheer when the other team makes a great play and to do your utmost to make a lot of great plays in return so that they can be challenged in their skill development as well. It means to be at practice each time and to work at motivating and encouraging the rest of the team; it means to show and develop leadership on the team, to be receptive to direction from the coach­es, to speak up when you should and to do so appropri­ately. It means to recognize how you can best contribute to the team rather than to seek your own glory. World Cup soccer has imprinted in my mind an image of a play­er scoring a goal and then running towards the crowd madly ripping his shirt off, arms waving the crowd on in cheering and avoiding his own team-mates who are rushing to celebrate with him. The player appears to want to personally stay in the limelight as long as he can before "sharing it" with the team. What a difference if, as soon as he had scored, he had turned to his team and celebrated with them, disappearing into them, thanking them for making it possible, instead of seeking personal attention and glory.

Sport can be a positive and effective method to de­velop the fruit of the Spirit. Like everything else, it must also be kept in balance. Throughout it all, the child must know that it is only sport and that there are much more important things in life.

Can a player or a team be competitive without viewing the other team as "the enemy" or without portraying ourselves as the ones who will crush them?←↰⤒🔗

The answer is of course, yes. As discussed in an­swer to the previous questions, a "yes" answer is pos­sible when sports is approached from the perspective of the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) and do­ing your best.

We may view those opposed to God as the enemy, but even then Jesus tells us to love our enemy and do good to them, so I think it is quite clear that we must view our competitors with a spirit of love, especially since one cannot equate them with the enemy Jesus is referring to. I do recognize that the meaning of enemy can be differ­ent. There are mortal enemies and there are temporary enemies; however, in most cases casting your opponents as the enemy calls up the wrong state of heart.

To apply the great commandment means to control yourself in play and to not sin when getting angry in the game (due to some true injustice). If the other player makes a dirty hit, can we hit him back? Can we target the aggravating poor sport, the dirty player on the other team, and try to make him pay? Can we cheer when an obnoxious player gets nailed or commits a dumb move? The other team should feel the love of Christ as they play against Christians. What is the goal of routines like the All Blacks haka?

What sports season or tournament has gone by with­out all sorts of gossip and energy spent on that other team that is...? It seems like in sports there always has to be a team or event that creates conflict or a negative rivalry. Some of those rivalries are legendary and not all are negative. How should we respond to the negative when guided by the command to love your neighbour as yourself?