Our friend and colleague, Stuart Weir of Verité Sport, shared this devotional thought earlier today.
It is emblematic of what I believe to be a wise, thoughtful, and Biblical view
of sport and faith. Please take a moment to read Stuart’s thoughtful reflection
from I Timothy 4:8.
Important but not
All-Important
For physical
training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding
promise for both the present life and the life to come. 1 Timothy 4:8.
Sport is
legitimate. It is part of God’s creation and it brings pleasure to many. It is
as worthwhile a part of human activity as any other. Through sport people can
glorify God and it can provide opportunities to talk about Jesus. However, at
the end of the day, sport is transient. It, like all other human activity, is
going to pass away. In the light of eternity it is of limited value.
While there is a
danger of sport becoming an idol if it is put ahead of Christ, sport is
important because it is the arena in which we serve Christ.
Helmfried Riecker
expresses it thus in his book Warm Up: “The New Testament writers are
unanimous, not only about the hope of eternal life after death, but also that
the goal of that eternal life is to be with Christ in the presence of God the
Father… It is great to set sports goals and to gain a real part of your meaning
in life through the fulfilment of these goals. However, the short-term goals
will appear in a different perspective when you see again the real goal of your
life. If winning a final is an exciting thing, how much greater will be the
celebration of the ultimate goal of your life?”
South African,
cricketer, Peter Pollock would agree with that: ‘As Christian sportsmen our
task is to throw ourselves wholeheartedly into applying the gifts God has given
us in the arena he has prepared for us, realizing always that the final victory
isn’t the World Cup’ (‘The myth of success’).
Wanting to compete
at the Olympics and wanting to win a gold medal are totally appropriate aspirations
for an athlete. At the same time we need to remember God’s big picture.
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