A large majority of my life I have heard many people refer to sports with a classic and popular cliche that goes something like, It's just a game.
Bullshit.
It's not, as the old saying goes, just a game. Sports have and never will be just a game, nor were they created or intended to be mere 'games'. With the exception of my marriage, sports have and always will hold some of the most meaningful and important pieces of my life. Some of my dearest memories and most life shaping moments have come in the arena of sports and competition. I used to be a little embarrassed by this truth I held in my heart. I felt as if my love of sport was nothing more than an empty addiction of which I should be extremely ashamed of.
You're that guy. Obsessed with meaningless child's play. Grow the hell up and move on with your life.
But it was around 10:03 pm last night that I started to yet again be reminded that there is something very good about my love of sports. I was absolutely exhausted and was sleepily watching the Royals game. Just 40 minutes earlier, I had mentioned to Samantha that I struggle getting into baseball anymore. But there I was, one exhilarating inning and a handful of hard earned runs later, wide awake. My senses were tingling. Palms sweating and body temperature rising. My heart felt alive, young and invincible.
Whoa what just happened? How do I go from just barely conscious to absolutely bursting with life?
And I realized yet again the Father and his angels were on yet another rescue mission for my heart. Like Tom Hanks and the boys from Saving Private Ryan, he's on a risky mission to wake me up from the spiritual slumber stemming from a culture of constant busyness and routine that we simply accept as 'life'. Papa was enticing me, waking me, inviting me out of the mundane of business meetings, bills, and paperwork, and calling me up into my indisputable place in his Story.
The truth is God has been using sports for ages to stir the hearts of his beloved sons and daughters. But He has never done more so than now. In an age in which evil and suffering seems to be rampaging, and a pace of living assaults the life our deep hearts, God gives us sports as a doorway to re-enter his Kingdom again and again. He gives us the raw passion and energy of the opening kickoff of a football game to ignite desire in our hearts. He gives us the excitement of stolen bases, wild pitches, and walk off hits to stir joy in our souls. And He gives us the unlikely comeback in extra innings to restore deep hope to every fiber of our being.
Last night the Cardiac Kids that call themselves the Royals went extra innings with the A's and won a pulse pounding contest that no one can stop talking about. And it was more than just a game. It was the Father ministering deeply to our weary and exhausted souls.
It's a wildly scandalous plan to save his beloved.
And its working.
John Muir once said, "I'd rather be in the mountains thinking of God, than at church thinking of the mountains."
I would much rather be at the game experiencing the Father than at church thinking of the game.
