Spiritually Athletic.

Athletically Spiritual.

Next Level

One concept we’re all familiar with is athleticism. Someone who is athletic is not merely a competitor in a game, but it's a player who is agile, adaptive, robust, and poised, able to be in the zone without compromising one's perspective of the bigger picture.

Many athletes even describe it as being able to 'see the future' and know their opponents exact next moves, thus being able to counter them accordingly.

Connecting this to the Christian life, this is similar to what it means to be filled with the Spirit, perfectly in tune with God's word and God's ways in order to live and love like Jesus, as well as counter any opposition accordingly.

This semester we are aiming to help you integrate the spiritual life into your sport so you can glorify God with your performance--i.e., spiritually athletic. But we don't stop there--why? Because sport is only one aspect of life, and our faith impacts all of life.

And life can be difficult and disappointing, surprising and sweet. So we've got to adapt accordingly, in tune with God's Spirit, "holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain." (Philippians 2:16).

In other words, we need to be athletically spiritual as we live out our Christian faith in a broken and rebellious world. We invite you to join us on this journey of learning more of what this means and looks like, so that, together, we become who God designed us to be.

The 5 AIA Principles of Sport (and Life).

AIA Principles of Sport

To start off the new school year, we’ll be discussing the 5 Principles of Sport developed by Athletes In Action over the decades. Each week we’ll unpack how to connect faith and sport, learning how to compete with a higher purpose, deeper motivation, and eternal perspective.

Whether you’re new to thinking about faith and sport or you’ve been doing this for years, these principles will challenge and change you to be the best version of yourself—which is to be more and more like Jesus Christ.

defeating disappointment with GODLY GRIEF

Here are some of the topics and truths we hope to discuss:

• The Language of Godly Lament

• Principles and practices to process pain and related emotions

• Lamenting from Loss

• Learning from Loss

• Leading from Loss

• Loving from Loss

• Grief and God: Grieving to God, with God, and like God

• Tears, Truth, and Grace

• Sorrow and Joy

And here are some of the resources we'll be using:

• The Bible--the ultimate resource for life, especially in regards to godly grieving (e.g., Psalms, Lamentations)

• Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy by Mark Vroegop

• Prophetic Lament by Soong-Chan Rah

• Walking With God Through Pain & Suffering by Tim Keller

• Hit Hard by Pat & Tammy McCleod

• https://athletesinaction.org/resources/ - key word search: defeat, loss, grief

• Stories of real people, both current and former athletes

[Previous Semester Theme] Godly Grief vs. Godless Grumble

As we begin 2021, unexpected and unwanted words seem to describe our present predicament: disappointment, loss, confusion, despair, discouragement. Pick a category and there's something to worry, complain, or groan about: economics, health, government, academics, athletics, friends, family…the list goes on.

What's more, every athlete at Brown University--and many other athletic departments around the country and world--now know what it's like to have an entire athletic season suddenly cancelled. This is difficult and devastating.

How do we deal with (constant) disappointment and discouragement from the world around us and the one inside of us?

How do we properly process the loss in all its various forms, such as sports (lose the game), school (fail the course), career (lost the job), community (lose a loved one), and injury (lose the physical abilities temporarily or permanently)?

Society may tell you to just blame it on others.

Positivity may tell you to wait it out as things will (eventually…magically…) become better.

Pessimists may tell you to not expect less because life is suffering and there's no escape.

Academia may tell you to analyze it and make sure to not repeat it.

Coaches may tell you to just get over it and move on.

Your inner voice may tell you to ignore it, avoid it, or explain it away as merely a passing moment.

Experience may tell you that time will eventually heal everything, so just wait it out…perhaps even numbing it away through addictive behaviors (e.g., food, drugs, social media, video games, pornography, alcohol, or even sport).

Psychiatrists may tell you these feelings of loss are real, but merely physical--so the antidote to these ails is also physical (i.e., pharmaceutical).

Psychologists may tell you it's all normal and you're simply in one of several stages of grief (e.g., shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, acceptance).

What's more, none of these approaches are entirely wrong--all of them have an aspect of truth and benefit. But they still largely ignore the spiritual aspect of our lives, thus leading to a godless grumble of our present reality while offering no real, lasting hope nor a solid path forward and upward.

But what if there was a better way? What is there was a way to defeat disappointment where all of the mess of reality is fully embraced while simultaneously offering a hope-filled, glorious path forward in the near and far future? Indeed, there is a better way…

Through the person, works, and words of Jesus Christ, we're able to grieve in a godly way that leads to renewed deeper relationships with God and others as well as hope for the future.

Jesus is our example, our enabler, and our encourager.

As a result, we may be losing but not we're quitting, dying but not dead, discouraged but not defeated, down but not out, complaining to God yet still contending with God.

Rather than grumbling in our disappointment or becoming stuck in our sorrow, Jesus pulls us of our pit of pain and despair. He moves us from death to life by His Spirit, Word, and grace….from whining and weary to worshipful and working.

We invite you to join us this semester as we explore what it means to grieve in a godly way that leads to glory.