This post is about my son, my husband, the Atlanta Braves, sports, and the Gospel.
Feel free to respond to any or all of my wonderings.
My four year old, Thomas, is obsessed with the Atlanta Braves (pro baseball team for any non-sports lovers). What does this look like in the life of a four year old?
He wears his Braves uniform every day (at night to bed if allowed). He wants to play baseball in the driveway pretty much all day. He can watch a whole game on TV, with commentary, with his dad. His best friend is Chipper Jones. He wants to fly a Braves flag outside of our house. And I am frequently astounded by the details he cites through out the day related to the Braves...”Chipper’s hurt right now...Chipper’s a low ball hitter....Brian McCann is on a hot streak...”
No surprise as to the source of his passion. His dad has been a Braves fan from an early age. They check the stats in the morning together.
This is cute, right? Well, it sorta is and it sort of drives me crazy. It is harmless fun. And know that I am actually a tom-boy since birth who has played and loved sports her whole life long. I do not want to sound like an overly serious kill joy. But two questions haunt me as I watch this single minded baseball focus, and I’m open to some words of wisdom on this.
The first is how can the Jesus story capture the heart, mind and imagination of our son like the Braves and Chipper Jones? I’m serious. I believe we live in an amazing story of the God of the universe and people. How can that story and its vision of reality seize my child with a similar passion as baseball? The second is just a general wondering about how a Christian world-view would affect one’s interest and engagement in the world of sports- from our approach to the impending days of Little League to a love for the Braves. I’ve been a competitor my whole life and yet I’m wanting a more robust interaction between the Gospel and the world of competitive sports. Silly to ask but did Jesus try to beat people in the games of the day? What kind of coach would he be? Would Jesus have told parables that subverted our world of sports with its idols?
Help me out here.
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Frank Reich, former NFL
Wed, 05/21/2008 - 05:10 — Mark Upton (not verified)Frank Reich, former NFL quarterback, former president of RTS-Charlotte, and current ARP pastor has an interesting article an a Christian approach to competition you might be interested in here.
http://thirdmill.org/newfiles/fra_reich/TH.Reich.Competition.html
Kathryn, Good questions. I'm
Wed, 05/21/2008 - 05:46 — GL (not verified)Kathryn,
Good questions. I'm at a loss as to how the Jesus story can capture the heart, mind and imagination of a child as much as the hero worship of a player and team. But I have the same question about how the Jesus story can capture the hearts of teens and adults of different ages.
It seems to me that for some people, the context of pluralism makes it hard for religious faith to capture them. There are so many religions so how can you be sure; you don't want to offend others... I think for some people pluralism diminishes belief in a particular religious faith.
Yet, this doesn't happen with sports. The context of pluralism stirs up rabid fans who have no trouble offending others with their pronouncements about their players or teams. People who are diffident, because of the presence of many religions, about the truth of a religious faith can be utterly certain about the 'truth' of their team in the presence of many teams.