I know, I know...and I agree with you. Our self-obsessed culture has taken it too far. Our love of sports in this country is an unhealthy and even an idolatrous thing. You are unquestionably right. But I don't want to talk about that aspect right now. Today, I'd rather write about the benefits of sports, football in particular. And there are real benefits. Other sports are fun and beneficial, but to me, there is nothing like football.
Football is like playing chess, but with consequences. In football, every decision is a business decision as there are real, physical consequences for every action taken. There are different schools of thought and philosophies employed in order to be successful in football, such as the smashmouth approach (run it straight ahead and see who backs down first), or the run-and-shoot approach (spread out the defense and create space and mismatches), or any combination in between. Fearlessness, toughness, discipline, teamwork, commitment, perseverance, selflessness, creativity, humility and other beneficial things are lessons learned through the game of football.
Football isn't for everyone, you must have the proper mentality for it. But moms and dads, if your son wants to play, I mean really wants to play and you are in a position to accommodate him, give him a shot at it. Let him experience the struggle for himself. His hunger to take on a difficult challenge is a good thing. A necessary thing. Don't tamp down or demean his desire to be tested. Furthermore, the opportunity that he will have to learn the above lessons is reason enough to let him try. It may be tough for you to watch him get slammed around, but just remember the inherent benefits within the game, and let him have at it.
Football is a game, but it mimics the realities of real life. Many of the lessons taught within the game are lessons that are crucial for dealing with the real world. How many times have you been "knocked down" by life circumstances? How many times have you been afraid? How many times would self-discipline have served you much better than the haphazard approaches to life that you have taken in your past? See...the game of football helps to teach those good lessons.
In Genesis 1:28, when God said to Adam and Eve, "...multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over...every living thing..." he was instructing them as to the mentality that they were to have toward what He had made. God intended for man to take responsibility for "taming" what He had made. In order for man to do that, and to continue to do that, he must learn fearlessness, toughness, discipline, teamwork, commitment, perseverance, selflessness, creativity and humility among countless other things.
Think about the men and women who tamed the West. Doubtless, they had to rise up to meet an extreme challenge, which they did. The comforts of life came at great cost. Maybe not to us, but to someone. Without the above qualities within the lives of certain men and women, our world would be a very different place. God planted so much in the way of resources within the ground of these United States. But he also planted within the men and women who inhabit this place the necessary attributes to discover those resources and to refine them to the benefit of mankind. Know this, it is this mentality that has served in making this nation the most prosperous nation in recent world history.
So, while we do acknowledge that its purity has been perverted and that we are prone to distort it into something bad, we ought also acknowledge the potential God-given blessings experienced through sports. And in sports, as in all of life, we should pray for a God-honoring perspective, make decisions according to the knowledge of God that we find through His Word and the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and then we should go out and fulfill His mandate to us to subdue what He has made.
"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." - Colossians 3:17
Pastor Jeremy
