Sports: eternal value?

At latest Prime Time gathering, Pastor Luke gave us great insight on the very essence of sports. Do they have eternal value? Yes! But we often miss this for two reasons.

Either, we make sports into a mere game that doesn’t have any impact on our society or our souls. We can play however we want, it doesn’t influence anything or anyone.

Or, we make sports into a god that has the power to grant us value and fame and glory (salvation), as well as devastating disappointment and depression and shame (condemnation).

But the gospel of Jesus Christ provides a better way. From a Christian perspective, sports is a good gift from our good Creator to His good creatures (that’s us!) to be used in a good way that glorifies Him.

Sports are not meaningless—we’re called to worship God with all that we have, which includes our physicality, and then to showcase His creation by performing with the ultimate purpose of glorifying God, with an attitude of gratitude for the ability to use our minds and bodies in these (re)creative ways.

Sports are not masters whom we have to serve in order to prove our value and earn right standing with ourselves or other people. Recall the reference to the story of Eric Lidell and Harrold Abrams in Chariots of Fire. We’re already loved and accepted in Christ. Now, we can perform at a maximum level, without the pressure, with all of the power God’s Spirit works with in us. We play sports to ‘feel God’s pleasure.’