Being a top level athlete in one sense is one of the hardest places to be a Christian. Here’s why... it seems everywhere in N. America we breath the air of self. Everything around us seems to cater to our own individualism and promoting our independence. Satisfying our every desire with stuff is the accepted way of living. For the athlete who’s recognized for their sporting prowess it all gets bumped up a notch. It’s so easy for an aspiring athlete to get a sort of tunnel vision with the only thing in sight the goal to be better, faster, stronger, etc. you embark on a quest to do everything in your life to achieve personal success. This quest can be intensely self focussed. You can easily lose the ability to think about anything other than yourself and your own improvement.
Add to this the reinforcement elite athletes receive from people around them. I still remember a pro football chaplain telling me he’s seen it time and time again where he’ll bring in an older, seasoned pastor to deliver the pre-game chapel message in the locker room, and the minute they enter that supposed hallowed ground they become a 12 year old fan again. Acting in ways that quickly end any influence and credibility they might have had. At a recent Olympics where I was a chaplain we had a situation.... each night we had a Bible discussion meeting for the athletes. A couple of the inexperienced chaplains wanted to open it up to all the volunteers in the athlete village. Now, our roles as chaplains did include ministering to volunteers and even families of athletes, etc., but this ½ hour nightly meeting was the one place these athletes could come and be with their peers without fans, hangers on and others wanting to be around them paying them special attention. The athletes weren’t elitists in their attitudes, it’s just that as Christians they didn’t need that temptation to feel more important or more special than others around them. But so often, for the elite athlete that’s how people treat them and then one can easily fall into the trap of believing that you’re just a little better and more exceptional than others.
Christian athletes...make sure you’re "soaked in scripture". Everyday get into the Bible read things like Is. 43.7 "everyone who is called by My name, & whom I have created for My glory..." Or Ps. 115.1 "Not to us O Lord, but to Your name be glory". Read and realize how absolutely dependant we are on God. Every breath you take (& long distance athletes take a LOT of them!) is a gift from God. Make sure you’re grateful for every unique gift you’ve been given and allow your heart to respond in love. This will change everything about your training and competition. It’s not even thinking about yourself and how "awesome" you’re going to do and be. It’s all about that Creator you love so much. It’s all about making HIM look good, not yourself.
Granted, this isn’t easy. Everything around you will be going in the other self seeking direction, but with Holy Spirit empowerment, right Bible thinking and true heart engagement (loving Jesus) you’ll be training and competing on a whole different plane.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
BARRIERS TO WORSHIP
In my previous blog entry I looked at the desire to worship. Today I want to share some thoughts from one of our recent Olympic athlete SportFaith discussion groups.
Worship can take many forms. We tend to think that singing praises is the only way to worship, but we have many ways. In Rom. 12. Paul says that offering up our bodies as a living, holy sacrifice is an act of worship. Sounds like training & competition could certainly fall under Paul’s definition. We can look at the specifics of this in a future blog, but for now I want to discuss 4 barriers to worship that will be taken away once we arrive in Heaven. Four barriers that we can seek to minimize during our time here on Earth so we can maximize our worship here.
Barrier #1 is not seeing God sufficientlyWhen you see something amazing it’s natural to praise it. Great sport moments such as Sidney Crosby’s 2010 gold medal goal, or Bob Beamon’s world record long jump in the ‘68 Olympics that took over 23 years to finally be broken...mandate praise! You can’t help yourself. Same with God. When you really see Him for who He is, you can’t help but praise Him. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 13.12 that on Earth we see God dimly, but in Heaven we’ll be face to face and see Him clearly. We won’t be able to keep from praising Him up there.
We can reduce this barrier by seeing more of Him now. Knowing God, understanding His ways, observing what He’s made...the more we know, the more we’ll want to worship Him now.
Barrier #2 is failing to clearly see God’s grace to us and his many good gifts. "The highest angel to the lowest insect are dependant upon and maintained by the goodness of God. Those in Heaven see this with perfect clarity." (J. Edwards)
Those in Heaven rightfully understand the greatness and dignity of Jesus and how incredible it was for Him to become a man and lay down His life, enduring the shame and gruesomeness of the cross. We have a small sense of this now, but when we see Christ in His full glory, the reality of what He did for us will be astounding.
Comprehending and intentionally enjoying God’s gifts will automatically draw our hearts to worship.
Barrier #3 is imperfect humility. High level sport is precarious for faith. Here’s why... the more you attain, the more glorification the world gives you. This is suicide for the soul. A Christian athlete must constantly be on guard against self elevation and assigning praise to themself.
Because of the first 2 barriers being removed in Heaven (all these solutions flow into one another), it will be automatic to say as the Psalmist did in Ps. 115.1 "not to us o Lord, not unto us, but to thy name be the glory". Humility will be perfected in Heaven, we’ll see God for who He truly is and ourselves for who we are.
The Christian athlete cannot afford to neglect one day of drawing deeply into God’s word enjoy seeing Him rightly and understand what He’s done for us and comprehend clearly where we stand in His divine Kingdom
Barrier #4 is that love for God isn’t perfect. But it will be in Heaven. On Earth it’s possible to be thankful, but not genuine... a counterfeit thankfulness devoid of love. Sincere thankfulness is full of love and it can’t help itself. The greater a person’s love is, the more disposed to praise they will be. When your love for God is strong you will proportionally seek His glory and love to see Him glorified.
"Where is your heart at?" I know longer ask Christians how their walk with God is going, because where their heart is at is much more important. Do you purposefully aim to grow deeper in love with God? Make it a priority.
Can you imagine how joyful such unhindered praise would be? Joy is a great ingredient in praise and your spirit is elevated to eminent heights when you are participating in the greatest, most honouring thing we were created to do!
Worship can take many forms. We tend to think that singing praises is the only way to worship, but we have many ways. In Rom. 12. Paul says that offering up our bodies as a living, holy sacrifice is an act of worship. Sounds like training & competition could certainly fall under Paul’s definition. We can look at the specifics of this in a future blog, but for now I want to discuss 4 barriers to worship that will be taken away once we arrive in Heaven. Four barriers that we can seek to minimize during our time here on Earth so we can maximize our worship here.
Barrier #1 is not seeing God sufficientlyWhen you see something amazing it’s natural to praise it. Great sport moments such as Sidney Crosby’s 2010 gold medal goal, or Bob Beamon’s world record long jump in the ‘68 Olympics that took over 23 years to finally be broken...mandate praise! You can’t help yourself. Same with God. When you really see Him for who He is, you can’t help but praise Him. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 13.12 that on Earth we see God dimly, but in Heaven we’ll be face to face and see Him clearly. We won’t be able to keep from praising Him up there.
We can reduce this barrier by seeing more of Him now. Knowing God, understanding His ways, observing what He’s made...the more we know, the more we’ll want to worship Him now.
Barrier #2 is failing to clearly see God’s grace to us and his many good gifts. "The highest angel to the lowest insect are dependant upon and maintained by the goodness of God. Those in Heaven see this with perfect clarity." (J. Edwards)
Those in Heaven rightfully understand the greatness and dignity of Jesus and how incredible it was for Him to become a man and lay down His life, enduring the shame and gruesomeness of the cross. We have a small sense of this now, but when we see Christ in His full glory, the reality of what He did for us will be astounding.
Comprehending and intentionally enjoying God’s gifts will automatically draw our hearts to worship.
Barrier #3 is imperfect humility. High level sport is precarious for faith. Here’s why... the more you attain, the more glorification the world gives you. This is suicide for the soul. A Christian athlete must constantly be on guard against self elevation and assigning praise to themself.
Because of the first 2 barriers being removed in Heaven (all these solutions flow into one another), it will be automatic to say as the Psalmist did in Ps. 115.1 "not to us o Lord, not unto us, but to thy name be the glory". Humility will be perfected in Heaven, we’ll see God for who He truly is and ourselves for who we are.
The Christian athlete cannot afford to neglect one day of drawing deeply into God’s word enjoy seeing Him rightly and understand what He’s done for us and comprehend clearly where we stand in His divine Kingdom
Barrier #4 is that love for God isn’t perfect. But it will be in Heaven. On Earth it’s possible to be thankful, but not genuine... a counterfeit thankfulness devoid of love. Sincere thankfulness is full of love and it can’t help itself. The greater a person’s love is, the more disposed to praise they will be. When your love for God is strong you will proportionally seek His glory and love to see Him glorified.
"Where is your heart at?" I know longer ask Christians how their walk with God is going, because where their heart is at is much more important. Do you purposefully aim to grow deeper in love with God? Make it a priority.
Can you imagine how joyful such unhindered praise would be? Joy is a great ingredient in praise and your spirit is elevated to eminent heights when you are participating in the greatest, most honouring thing we were created to do!
WILL YOU BE BORED IN HEAVEN?
Will you be bored in Heaven? Almost anyone you know would say they want to go to Heaven (though many seem to be unsure of how to actually get there). But do they really want to go to Heaven? Most people rarely go to church these days (in my town it’s probably less than 2% on any given Sunday). The past several years I’ve seen an interesting trend in Christians that don’t go to any church. But I’ve wondered if you can be a Christian and not DESIRE to go to church. Here’s why... the main occupation of Heaven is going to be worship. Worship of Jesus. Look at the descriptions in Revelation. God gave visions to John of the eternal Heavenly worship service. It’s awesome! Rev. 5.8-9; 7.9-12; 15.2f; 14.2: these all describe amazing scenes of numbers too vast to count making a loud, beautifully melodious song of praise to Jesus.
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Granted, some of our churches are sorely lacking in superlative musical experiences, but in the end it’s the heart’s desire. Do you really have a heart to worship? If so, it won’t matter completely if the music is perfect or not, or even if the style is your favourite. What matters is that the King of all Kings, Jesus, is worshipped, praised, honoured and made the absolute centerpiece of what’s going on.
Occasionally I’ve pondered whether or not many of my semi-religious friends would actually really want to go to Heaven. Imagine knowing someone that even though they’re the most morally pure, beautiful persons ever, they just for some reason rub you the wrong way. Who knows why...maybe they just remind you of your own shortcomings, but for whatever reason you just don’t like them. Now imagine that you’re locked up in a room with that person for all eternity.....yuck! If you’ve never had any interest in praising Jesus, making much of him and singing to him, do you really think you’re going to want to do that for all eternity? Heaven is the place where everything revolves around Jesus and worshipping him.
For me, when I think about these things it challenges me to make sure that when I get to Heaven and I get to finally see Jesus face to face I don’t want Him to be a stranger. I want to carry on what I’ve been pursuing on Earth, only in a much more intense, personal and unspoiled way.
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Granted, some of our churches are sorely lacking in superlative musical experiences, but in the end it’s the heart’s desire. Do you really have a heart to worship? If so, it won’t matter completely if the music is perfect or not, or even if the style is your favourite. What matters is that the King of all Kings, Jesus, is worshipped, praised, honoured and made the absolute centerpiece of what’s going on.
Occasionally I’ve pondered whether or not many of my semi-religious friends would actually really want to go to Heaven. Imagine knowing someone that even though they’re the most morally pure, beautiful persons ever, they just for some reason rub you the wrong way. Who knows why...maybe they just remind you of your own shortcomings, but for whatever reason you just don’t like them. Now imagine that you’re locked up in a room with that person for all eternity.....yuck! If you’ve never had any interest in praising Jesus, making much of him and singing to him, do you really think you’re going to want to do that for all eternity? Heaven is the place where everything revolves around Jesus and worshipping him.
For me, when I think about these things it challenges me to make sure that when I get to Heaven and I get to finally see Jesus face to face I don’t want Him to be a stranger. I want to carry on what I’ve been pursuing on Earth, only in a much more intense, personal and unspoiled way.
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