Experiencing God in Sports (Round 7)

The Christian faith teaches that God created “us” for the ultimate purpose of participating in His divine life (2 Peter 1:3-4). Furthermore, God created the world –and all that is in it – to be our home and a means through which to take share in His life. How do we do this? I want to suggest we do this by first getting intricately involved in a “thing” of the earth. It’s whatever you are interested from biology to interior design. For you the athlete, it’s your sport! The more closely we attend to created things the more they reveal their meanings and God. This happens, according to the Romanian theologian, Dutrimru Staniloae, “because their rationality is seen by us as having its source integrally in the personal God and because they themselves are seen as a means of God’s love and hence a means of the dialogue God has with us and we have with one another. Through this dialogue God leads us to an ever more profound knowledge of his own thinking and loving as well as to growth in our own thinking and loving within the relations we have among ourselves and with God.” The idea that “things” – creation – reveal God and are means of coming to know Him is really not a novel idea, the Psalmist states,

The heavens declare the glory of God,

    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork (19.1)

And again,

O Lord, how manifold are your works!

    In wisdom have you made them all (104.24)

Then there is the famous line of St Paul in Romans,

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (1.20)

Through the “gift” of creation God makes himself known. Just as the Law was given to lead us to Christ, so Creation was set as a means to come to know Him more fully. Staniloae further explains, “the dialogue with God through the agency of created things (like sports) contributes to our development inasmuch as they are regarded as images or symbols or transparent types of inner principles/reasons of God” – they reveal God. Take note, this is not by looking past or beyond the “thing-in-itself” but by looking into it. The deeper we gaze into creation, the deeper we come know and experience the wisdom and love of God. The more we get involved with things, the more we discover “new and alternative dimensions” of “things”, as well as, new uses and combinations for them. This is not done by reason alone, “but also through the feelings and the continual new thoughts our bodies produce in contact with things”. It’s through our whole being – mind and body – that we experience the world and thus, God. Furthermore, it’s in getting intricately involved with and using the “things” of creation that the experience of God comes to fruition. It’s in farming the land, building the buildings, creating new medicines, working with individuals, and so on… that we unveil the revelation of God   For the athlete, it’s in kicking the ball, swimming through the water, poll vaulting up and over the bar, skiing down the hill, etc., and all the varying aspects that make up a sport from the rules to the science of it that God may be experienced in and through it.

There are two implications for the Christian athlete I see in this truth: 1) you can actually deepen your relationship with God through playing your sport. For the serious athletes this is your primary means of relating with God – this is where you work out your salvation in fear and trembling (Phil 2.12) (Don’t get me wrong here the church is the primary means to salvation, but your sport can also be a context wherein you deepen that relationship with God). And 2) the more you work at perfecting your craft within a given sport the more deeply you will come to know and experience the living God who created the sport and you. What I think is so cool is that this is an inexhaustible goal for the Christian Athlete. As my buddy, Billy Wagner, is found of saying, “perfection is our goal as athletes even though it is unattainable, nevertheless it’s what we work towards – we can always get better!” On similar line of thinking, God is infinite, there will never be a time that we will exhaust our knowledge and experience of Him – we can always grow in our relationship.

It’s true, Creation can lead us to God, but it is also the case that it can lead us to “Hell”! “How” we relate to creation then makes all the difference. I’ll be discussing this “how” in detail through the next several posts.