“While you are competing admirably in the divine race along the course of virtue, lightfootedly, leaping and staining constantly for the prize of the heavenly calling, I exhort, urge and encourage you vigorously to increase your speed.” – Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses (390s AD)
On August 12, 1994, I married Kimberly Byham; one month later she attended her first LPGA Qualifying School. Kim had recently completed a stellar senior year in golf at the University of North Carolina where she had won multiple times, including the NCAA East Regional tournament; she earned 1st team All-American Honors and was ranked as the 3rd best amateur in the country. She could “golf her ball”! I was in my second year of seminary training in Orlando, Fl.; a perfect place for Kim to practice golf year around. God and golf characterized my days. I would get up and go to class in the mornings, learning Greek and talking theology. My afternoons were spent at the course with Kim, learning the intricacies of the game and talking swing mechanics with her teacher Mike Bender. Her schedule was regimented and demanding, she lived constantly under the pressure to perform, nevertheless, she was focused, determined and driven. She loved competing. I helped with what I could because I loved her and enjoyed being apart of the pursuit of her dreams.
I share this because I have spent my adult life living with an elite athlete and being around them. Kim played professionally for 10 years, and has been coaching at the collegiate level for the last 11 years. In addition, for the past 7 years I have been involved with former MLB great, Billy Wagner, coaching, training and advising elite high school baseball players that are striving to play in college or be drafted. I’ve had a unique opportunity to observe first hand what it takes to be great athlete. I often find myself in awe of their passion, dedication, and disciple. The great ones are so mentally tough; there are always way more defeats than victories, yet they continue to get up after being knocked down as though their life depended upon it. I have a heart for these athletes and this blog was started to confirm them in their pursuit of excellence in their sport and help them understand that through this pursuit of excellence they can pursue God.
By comparison to other subjects within the history of Christian Theology very little has been written on Theology and Sports. Thankfully, recently certain Christian ethicist and theologians have begun to take on the subject. Dr. John White and others have been working together in a group called “Sport and Christianity” to discuss and address Christians in sports. In 2014, Lincoln Harvey published A Brief Theology of Sport, where he situates sports within the context of Christian thought. Most recently, Michael Shafer’s work, Well Played: A Christian Theology of Sport and the Ethics of Doping, where he explains the original intention of sports and the need to recapture it. I very much appreciate the work these folks are doing to help Christians think and relate Christianly to sports. For the most part the work that has been done is very general in nature addressing “how” Christians should relate to sports as participant and fan. My concern throughout this blog is for the elite athlete (professional or amateur), or those striving to be one. For them sport is what they do, it’s their passion, it consumes their time, it’s what they work at, and it’s how they give back. For them the “play” of sport has become “sedulity” – a certain striving towards excellence – within that sport. I will show that for the Christian athlete this “striving toward excellence” in a given sport can be a means through which s/he lives into communion with God.
The purpose of this blog, as stated above, is to confirm the serious Christian Athlete in their quest to become the best they can be at their given sport. My hope is to make a way for them as a “Christian” Athlete. I want to help them find meaning – God – in all they do from practice to play. Sports are not merely instrumental, but have meaning within itself. A given sports value is established on its own merits finding its rational in the rational and love of God. We do not apprehend God by moving beyond the sport, but by exactly attending to it. Like all things in Creation, sports are intended to be a road to God, an avenue through which we ascend to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. By contemplating the intricacies and reasons of a given sport we grow in our knowledge and experience of God. Contemplating is not merely observing and analyzing but living in the midst of and experiencing the truth of a “thing”. To contemplate an apple is to observe the beauty of an apple (shape, size, color), but even more so, it’s to taste and enjoy the apple’s deliciousness as well as benefit from its nourishment. Christian contemplation is experiencing creation in all its grandness, or brokenness, while simultaneously realizing and experiencing God in the midst. The Christian athlete does this in a given sport by attending to it, observing it, working at it, living it, playing it and suffering it in faith. Here, faith arises as something much more than a mere belief, it becomes an actual mode of existence – a way of seeing, being, and living in the world.
Very encouraging to me in my race to win the prize although I am not an elite athlete. First of all, I appreciate the quote at the beginning of today’s post. To paraphrase, while you are running, straining, give more, RUN FASTER! And then I like your statement about mid-way through – “The great ones are so mentally tough; there are always way more defeats than victories, yet they continue to get up after being knocked down as though their life depended upon it.” Stay focused, get up, run harder!
Thank you for your comment! Often St. Paul and many of Fathers of Church used the “athlete” their writings as metaphor/simile as to how we should go about our Christian life. They appreciated their discipline, effort and persistence. Too often we are quick to give up when we hit the slightest bump in the road. Your right, “stay focused, get up, run harder”. The Fathers of the church were found of saying “God is not easily won!”. It is takes discipline and effort, but found in the midst of that striving is grace – the glorious life giving Spirit of God. Let us not let anything keep us from “increasing our speed” that we might live more fully into life of God.