The Sports-Related Prayer

When I was in High School I did full seasons of five different sports at different points in time. Few memories stick with me like the time my JV Football coach picked me out of the team of over 70 to pray. I didn't really know how to react at first--questions about the relevance of prayer in public school, the morality of praying for a game's outcome, and many other things quickly swirled through my mind before instinct took over, and I simply bowed my head and started praying as I had done many times in the past. I prayed for safety, that God's hand be over us, and that we grow as a team. It seemed to satisfy the coach enough that he continued to ask me to pray before each game, and I prayed basically the same prayer 10 times throughout the season while wording it slightly different any time. Why was I so nervous, insecure, and awkward, and what could I have done to fix that in such a rough time in my life?

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." -- Romans 8:26

Its not easy to know exactly how to go about prayer. New believers or questioning folk certainly see the idea of talking to a supposedly omniscient and all-loving God to be somewhat trivial, nonsensical, or downright silly. As new believers grow up they often take up a mantra which may sound something like "Pray for the strength, but get the job done yourself." Its a good thing the bible tells us how to pray since we can't figure it out for ourselves (at least most of us can't.)

"This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one." -- Matthew 6:9-13

What can we learn from this prayer (that we've all heard before, and even memorized?)

1) We need to begin prayer with affirmation and praise for God. There's nothing awkward about praising God for all that he is--powerful, loving, great, etc. We need to remind ourselves of this as much as anything; starting our prayer with these affirmations puts us back into the mindset that God is fully capable of answering prayer. We need to pray with confidence and faith, and not simply hope and routine. Asking for prayer but not expecting anything is a defeatist attitude which sets us up for failure--let's believe that God will help us when we go to him.

2) God's plan is better than whatever we have in mind. While Jesus does tell us that he wants us to come to him with everything in our lives (and the lives themselves for that matter,) adoration of God should beget the wisdom that he can take care of it much better than we can. If I am hungry, I do not ask God for a brown haired man in a black suit to come by and drop off his half eaten BLT from the local deli; I ask God for food. Whatever way God wants to give me food would be more than I'm capable of doing at that time, and I can be confident that God will provide for me. Let's take the same attitude towards the outcome of the game. We don't need to pray for victory; desiring God's work in the outcome seems infinitely more fruitful than me getting my way. Furthermore (and this is me spitballing) I'm happy to know that God doesn't limit his ways of working to my feeble and short sighted mind-he works on a much bigger scale to provide for his children.

3) Pray for the grand scale as well as the immediate. Its good to give up things that press on you to the Lord, but be careful not to become too wrapped up in them. God has everything else about us in mind, and he wants us to give that all up to him too. So we may pray for our current job search or difficult exam approaching, but we also need to affirm his guidance and continue to rely upon him in the future.

So as players, fans, and coaches we need to take this model directly for our game related prayers. Thank God for his providence in allowing you a field to play on, fans supporting you, the money to enter the league, and the fact that our ability to execute athletic achievements has zero bearing on our salvation. Pray that God can work through the game and the competition; that he uses the time spent competing and striving for him rather than our own proud devices. Pray for humility in victory and for confidence in loss--God is working beyond the scale of this one game. Most importantly, pray that you do not allow the evil one to use your passion for sports as a way to draw you from God. Pray for the wisdom of how to use your God-given talents and passions in a way that glorifies him.

There's nothing wrong with praying for Sports--they're part of the everything that Jesus wants to handle for us. We simply need to take the same attitude towards it as we do the rest of our lives. God wants to use it, you, and everything else for his glory, and we need to pray for the wisdom to recognize his plan as he reveals it to us.

Jeremy Affeldt's Realistic Belief

If you're not a Giants fan or as big a follower of Christian Lefty Middle Relievers (CLuRMs) as I am, you may not know about Jeremy Affeldt. Let's start with the basics; he's a Christian, an athlete, and he makes no claims to live those two lives separately. He runs a blog and frequently makes efforts to speak at charities and events like the recent Giants Fellowship Day last Saturday. He's dealt with injuries his entire career, and many times has had to face the uncertainty of knowing whether or not he will ever again be able to effectively do that which he feels God has called him to do. A few things I gleamed from his talk:

Affeldt is honest with God and his faith. Despite the fact that he's a professional athlete he, like the rest of us, constantly faces frustrations with the path his life takes. He also doesn't attempt to simply let things slide and accept it. Affeldt constantly makes an attempt to understand God's plan for his life so he can better fulfill it. He claims that he (sometimes to a fault) "yells at God." Often times this yelling arises from an inner desire to follow his own path instead of God, and when these two ideas collide he's stuck in the middle frustrated. I'm sure we can all relate to this; God's plan is rarely the most obvious and direct path. Jesus has an answer for this though;

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house there are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." -- John 14:1-4

Jesus is both the road paver and the guide. We walk the road ourselves, but Jesus has gone ahead of us to insure that the path is true and has come back to guide us anyway. Unfortunately the presence of the Lord is often not enough to calm our own stubborn hearts. We continue to fight even though we know the correct path to take. We need to remember not only God's guidance but his assurance that things will be fine. The path is scary, this is certain, but the savior of all mankind has gone out to insure that the path is not too treacherous for us to undertake. That's not to say there aren't dangers along the way:

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." -- John 10:10

During his talk, Affeldt also stressed the necessity of following Jesus and

the threat of Satan. "The thief" as Jesus refers to him here comes to steal, kill, and destroy. This verse comes from a passage explaining Jesus as the shepherd and us as the flock; the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy us (the sheep.) It's not enough unfortunately to think of the devil as just an evil force bent on nondescript bad acts; he wants to keep us from God for all eternity.

How do we stop this from happening? We need to stay close to the shepherd. Jesus is the embodiment of love, to be sure, but part of that love is protection. He is the savior who goes off to take back the one stray sheep. He is the savior who will lead us in victory in the end times. Most importantly, Jesus is the savior who would rather himself die than allow any of us who want to follow him be taken by the devil. Jesus is more powerful than our frustrations, our inhibitions, and our concerns. He is more powerful than the thief, the murderer, and the destroyer. This is the crux of Affeldt's argument; all we need do is stay close to the shepherd and he will guide us down the path he knows well.

Loving the Anonymous Referee

We've all had it happen to us--as coaches, fans, or as players. We've had a call go against us. Maybe we were one out away from a perfect game when the first base umpire botched the call, or maybe a player threw up a hand to stop a surefire goal and it wasn't called, or maybe our son was ejected from the game after just a dirty look. Its easy in these situations to blow up; to vent our frustration and tell the official just how wrong they are. After all, they wronged us, and as the victim we're entitled to a little lip, right? While the world at large may agree with this and push us to hold this attitude, we have to remember that we don't live by what the world tells us.

"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be." -- James 3:9-10

As is a recurring theme in this blog, I'd like to stress the importance of living every aspect of our life for God. When we go to the ballpark, we're not just fans of a sport; we're still living examples of the love of God. We need to remember that the men and women officiating a game are just as much God's children as we are, and we're just as much a sinner as they are. It may be culturally encouraged to get passionate about sports, and vicariously make enemies of the officials, but God calls us to reject such a culture's mindset. Despite the fact that its fun to bark at referees and boo, if only to be part of the community around you, that's no reason to live a second life on the field then you do in the rest of life. Sometimes as citizens of the world we're looking for an excuse to get mad at something, so we look for ways we've been wronged and speak out. This is the wrong way to deal with our anger.

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." -- Ephesians 4:31-32

God teaches us that if we are to model our lives after Jesus, then we must be ready to forgive trespasses against us. Do not allow yourself to drift back into anger by lashing out at the seemingly anonymous person behind the whistle. While passion is a fine thing to have, we need to let God direct our passion towards his goals instead of letting it run free like a wildfire. Speaking from experience, I know that I am often not able to tame my tongue when I do it by myself. At my core I am a bitter, selfish, proud man who thoughtlessly mocks those around me. In my case, I pray that the Lord helps me tame my tongue and instead gives me ways to practice using my tongue for the building up of others. I imagine I'm not alone in my struggles against this sin, and I've found that letting bitterness during sports have any place in my mind only allows the poison to spread.

So friends, don't take the easy way out. Even outside of sports, don't slander and mock public figures simply because they seem anonymous and outside earshot. Every thought we give to that mindset; every space in our heart we're allowing it to rent is another place in our life we're barricading God from entering. Let's humble ourselves and allow God full entrance into our lives instead of just the parts where it's convenient.

Player Profile: Tim Tebow

With NFL training camps recently breaking, controversy is beginning to swirl again about last year's high draft picks. Few figures in the draft class are as polarizing as the newly drafted Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. While he's praised as an amazing college quarterback, few experts have him pegged to be a success in the NFL, due to his team's reliance on the Spread Offense (a formation which is often employed to great success at lower levels, but rarely sees success in the NFL.) What's most interesting to me though is how unabashedly brave he is in using his platform to preach the Gospel.

If you follow college football closely, you've probably heard the story of young Tim. He was born to Christian missionaries in the Philippines. When his mother was pregnant, she became infected with a condition that threatened her life should she go through with the pregnancy, and doctors recommended an abortion in order to insure she lived. She insisted on having the baby, and Tim grew up learning from his parents about the Lord. Despite being homeschooled, he played football extensively at a local school in Jacksonville, and accepted an offer from Florida to play college ball. At Florida, his career took off. He earned a Heisman Trophy his sophomore year, was third in the voting in 2008, and 5th in 2009. He continually impressed fans with his ability to both throw and run efficiently, and lead his team to BCS Championship games twice. He was drafted by the Broncos last year despite concerns that he does not have the talent to excel in the NFL.

To say Tim is a great football player is easy, but its not giving him nearly enough credit. To fully understand his motivation and desire, you have to look to his roots. Tim has used every platform he's been given up to this point for the Lord. Not only does he do the little things like writing bible verses on eyeblack and praising the Lord in postgame interviews, but he does community service extensively in the offseason. He's brought people to Christ while visiting them in jail cells. He takes mission trips back to the Philippines spreading the word and giving medical help to those in need.

"I could spend my Spring Break hanging out; having fun. Or I could spend my Spring Break ministering to Orphans, people in the Hospital who only have a few weeks to live...and I think: 'What really matters?'"

Tebow doesn't take his stand lightly. In an interview with ESPN, he states that his goal has always been to use football as a way to get to a place where he can tell people about the Lord. Where other athletes shy away from the spotlight and insist that children don't look at them for an example, Tim embraces it. He uses football because he wants to show everyone else how he's able to live life so joyously. This may seem proud, but it enforces faith in the Lord. The scriptures tell us that we should be living examples to Christ, and be bold in how we live our lives in faith so that others may see our confidence in Jesus as real, genuine, and providing.

"But, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." - 2nd Corinthians 10:17

The example we can learn from Tim is that we shouldn't be shy about what the Lord is doing with us. We need to aspire to greatness and be confident that the Lord will bless our endeavors if we plan on using them for his glory. We can use the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) as a parallel. The Lord may give us small portions to start, but if we prove faithful in using our gifts for the Lord, he will bless us in abundance as we have learned the proper way to use our gifts. Perhaps Tim is simply being entrusted with a greater portion due to his faith and diligence. While we may not all earn the platform that Tim has due to our individual gifts, we can all take pride in what the Lord has given us.

The moral here is to give the Lord praise in all you do. Shout to the world what the Lord has given you; the Lord delights in having joyous children who love him and tell the world of his love. If we are faithful, diligent, and loving in our lives, then perhaps we will simply end up as Tim has; our cup overflowing with grace, mercy, and opportunity.