Real Life Real Faith Men of Faith January Edition | Page 9

REAL LIFE REAL FAITH

RELATIONSHIPS THAT WORK

I recently listened to a woman
speak of the waste of time sports
is to her. She felt athletes make
too much money. Then I had an
opportunity to hear her speak of
Serena Williams and heap praise
and glory on Serena, and praise
to God for the gift of hard work
and talent needed to beat down
all her opponents. To say the
least, I was confused, but not
conflicted in what I heard.
Many fans or fanatics have a
sense of faith maybe not devoted
to a devout spiritualty or religion,
but more about a lifelong
affiliation of support. On the
other side of the court, many do
have convictions or affiliations to
their Godly beliefs.
Does our Creator bless us or not
because it is a game of athletic
play? I say Creator, as we see
very clearly many faiths and
religions are represented in the
sports world. That brings to
thought; in sports competition, is
there a bad guy, bad team, as in,
evil, immoral, and our God’s
might is better than their God’s
will? Does our God work for us,
and not for them?
Which and whose God supports,
Mohammad Ali VS Joe Frazier,
Kareem Abdul Jabbar VS Michael
Jordan, The New Orleans Saints
VS a team with a racial moniker
as its team name and mascot?
What about political enemies?
Does our Creator pick a winner
between, the USA VS Iran in
soccer? In any of these examples,
does any reference God belong?

Do you-we cheer and pray for
our chosen victor? If a
competitor on either side is
injured do you–we pray for them,
or is it, just our chosen favorites
we seek God’s favor?
There are those who support
winners or loser in competition
because of perceived wrongs or
rights, or good and evil, and
fasten faith and religion to
support their outlooks. Are we
then being judgmental, and
possibly trying to replace God’s
judgment, or we being
blasphemes?
When it comes to mixing our
faith in most situations there will
always be questions that can’t be
answered, leaving us with
opinions of personal choice.
Many feel sports are a child’s
games, and God is for a higher
calling. Higher calling – raising a
child, marriage, health and wellbeing, and growing closer to God,
are great reasons to have faith
and to call on God asking favor.
However, is there a limit or
absolute? When we see a child
injured while playing a sport, we
pray for relief of pain and no
permanent injury. We do the
same when a college or pro
players have a major injury on
the playing filed. The players
either before or after the
competition kneel and ask for
quick recovery for the fallen to
recover with no career ending
impairment, and or say thank
you God for no injuries. It’s not
uncommon for parents to
withhold their children from It’s
not uncommon for parents to

withhold their children from
participating in a sport if it’s during
church time. At that same church
though, the preacher may cut service
short for the Super Bowl, and make a
friendly bet on who has tend to the
grill at the next church picnic. At the
church picnic, the old flag football
game or softball game can get mighty
competitive. It would not be out of
order to hear a deacon to say, “Boy,
the lord was looking out for you on
that play.”
As the writer of this article I asked, I
encounter athletes who would rather
keep their beliefs personal. Many
athletes stated the pull of fans
seeking spiritual endorsements, and
fearing pressure from churches and
religious entities asking for money.
Most players apologized for not
wanting their name associated;
although they understood, having
faith–a higher power helped them be
successful. Some stressed it was
important to with hold involvement
because of the crazy social media
world; they felt it was not in their best
interest to have their convictions
known. Many players I asked
refrained from commenting fearing
alienating teammates and for sure,
some fans bases. In some ways, it
reminded me of the Christians and
Romans, and the Christians hid or be
led to face the lions in the coliseum.
I did have the great opportunity to
speak with a long time college and
NFL coach Al Roberts concerning the
subject of faith in sports. Coach
Roberts began his coaching career
first in 1969 on the high school level