You Are Here > Alphabetical / Alphabetical
How do we pray about our sports lives? Do we regularly talk with God about each situation or just when things seem out of control? Which kind of prayer does God hear well? My answer may be surprising. It’s exciting to me that God doesn’t discriminate between my weakest prayers of panic and my most serene prayers of thanksgiving.
"Not Too Young." It’s the theme we pull from this verse in 1 Timothy in which Paul speaks to young Timothy. Do you know that it is a lie we sometimes buy into that we are too young to make a difference? But we need to realize that many young people in the Bible did amazing things for God. Little David defeated Goliath. King Josiah, at the age of 7, made a difference in Israel. And don't forget about the young boy who had two fish and five loaves.
The young man with the fish and bread in particular gives an interesting example. This boy who had very little made a huge impact when he gave what he had to Jesus. He didn't have much, but Jesus took what he had and fed 5,000 people with it!
God doesn’t always work the way we think He should. Sometimes the things that we think are tragedies turn out to be blessings. In the Bible, Joseph serves as the perfect example of tragedy-turned-blessing. When Joseph received a dream foreshadowing his role to reign over his brothers, his brothers grew angry and sold him into slavery. When Joseph was later falsely accused of a crime and thrown into prison, it seemed that his dream would never come true.
Let’s think for a moment about the various ways we have traveled to and from competitions across our lives in sport. Low rent or first class, those who play their hearts out find joy in the journey.
I remember traveling to high school wrestling meets in school buses. I remember teammates spitting in paper cups to lose the last fractions of a pound to make weight. I remember the smell of oranges being peeled and snacks from mothers being shared among teammates. I remember the raucous rides home after victories and the deathly quiet following painful losses.
Tynesha Lewis of the Charlotte Sting has been blessed. Not only is she gifted with an amazing athletic talent that she continues to use for God’s glory, but she’s also been forgiven. Now in her fifth season in the WNBA, Lewis has experienced the world’s temptations and received God’s redemptive grace along the way, through it all, learning the benefits of complete honesty.
He was lying and he knew it. When the friendly stranger in the parking lot of what was then RiverSide Stadium in Harrisburg, Pa., had asked Jamey Carroll how he was doing, Carroll had told the man that things were going “great.” But deep down, he knew life was anything but great. Jamey Carroll was miserable.
Imagine playing your sport without a ball when one is needed. You walk 18 holes swinging a club aimlessly without once striking a golf ball. You shoot baskets without feeling the ball release from your fingertips. You drop back to throw a 50-yard bomb to a wide open receiver for a game-winning touchdown, but there’s nothing in your hand. Yes, it sounds ludicrous to do these things. It would eliminate the game itself. Most sports require a ball in order to fulfill the goals and objectives of the game. Simply put, a game without a ball is not even a game at all.
Timeout was called. There were only five seconds on the clock before halftime — enough time to run a good out-of-bounds play to score. Everyone paid attention in the huddle and knew the play. The ball was ready to go in. The play began, but Matt had a different plan. He received the ball and went to the basket, just missing the shot. He was so excited when he got into the locker room until a teammate informed him that he had shot at the wrong basket. Matt did what every good player would do in this situation: he hid as long as he could from the coach, which happened to be me!
Ministry
Sport
Book of the Bible
FCA Bible Topic
