The Super Bowl and Spiritual Disciplines

I've come to realize that one of the reasons I love sports is because it reminds me what marvelously adaptable creatures God has made us human beings to be.

Last night, I joined the other 110 million+ viewers who watched the Super Bowl and as I did I considered what an absurd set of skills it is that these guys have.  I think to myself "Why in the world should any human being have the ability to throw this oddly shaped ball 40 yards down the field to a quickly moving target sometimes through a window of space between defenders that isn't much larger than the ball itself all while a few 300-pound men are trying to clobber him?" Why should any human being be able to do this?

We take it for granted because sports is such a part of our culture that we've come to expect these guys to make plays like this.  But if you really think about it, there is no real purpose, no innate reason why any human being should be able to throw a ball that far and that accurately.  In fact, as any athlete will tell you, there is nothing natural about what they do.  There is no denying some people start out life more physically gifted than others but no one makes it very far without lots and lots and lots of practice.  Eli can make that throw because he has thrown a football literally tens of thousands of times in his young life.  Even for Eli who comes from a football family, this was not a gift with which he was naturally born. It was a skill he practiced until it became natural.  He made throw after throw after throw until all that throwing shaped him into the kind of player who could make this kind of throw.  Adaptability.

I use sports as an example because its something I understand but the same is basically true of most great demonstrations of human skill whether it be in music, art, writing, etc.  In fact, I would argue that its not just a matter of skills we develop but that it is our very selves, whatever you want to call that - our soul, spirit, personality - that are adaptable.  We really are like clay in some ways.  Who we are is shaped by what we do and we will be shaped most by those practices we choose to engage in repeatedly throughout the course of our lives.  God has made us to be truly adaptable creatures.

For me, this is one of the best arguments for why spiritual disciplines are a necessity.  Our goal as Christians is to be a Christ-like people.  But we have to recognize that doesn't just happen.  Yes, we are saved by grace and not our works.  Yes, it is God who works to transform us into his likeness.  But that transformation takes place as we offer ourselves to God over and over again throughout the course of a lifetime.  We pray and read Scripture and serve others and repeat countless times over the course of our lives not because we want to become really good at prayer or reading Scripture or because we believe those things win us any points with God but because we believe those things are opportunities for God to shape us to be more like Christ.

But this isn't just a matter of individual disciplines either.  Its about our disciplines together as a community as well.  Eli Manning has not only thrown a football ten of thousands of times in his life.  He probably has also run that specific play and others like it with his team hundreds or thousands of times.  They have run that play so many times that everyone knows where everyone else is supposed to be.  They have run it so many times that everyone knows how to adjust given different coverages and situations.  They have run it so much that it has become natural for them to work together in this way.

Such is the life of the Church.  We are a people engaging in private prayer and study so that we may be shaped into Christ's likeness.  We are, however, also a people who bring our different gifts and skills together while we worship together, share life together, and love together.  We come together because we can't be fully shaped into the kind of player, the kind of Christian we need to be if we are only practicing by ourselves.  This salvation that we've been delivered into is a sort of team sport and we can only really practice who God wants us to be when we practice together.

The 91st Minute

I don’t usually watch a lot of soccer but I’ve really enjoyed watching some of the games in the World Cup over the last few weeks.  Soccer (I know, I know, "futbol") may not have the raw strength of American football or the strategy of baseball or the high flying excitement of basketball but it has its own admirable characteristics.  For one, it is truly global game in a way that no other sport is.  In that way, the World Cup has an Olympic-like appeal to it as it athletes gather from all over the world to compete but in this instance they are all playing the same game. 

However, if there is one thing I have come to appreciate about soccer more than anything else it is perseverance.  Soccer involves running up and down a field larger than an American football field for over an hour and a half.  Of course, if you’ve ever watched a soccer match you also know that these are not usually high scoring affairs; a zero-zero tie or one to nothing game is not uncommon.  So not only do you have to run nearly non-stop for 90 minutes, you often do so without the thrill and adrenaline of scoring to keep you going: perseverance. 

Today, the U.S. team played a game they had to win in order to advance.  If they lost or tied, they would be eliminated and would go home seriously disappointed.  The game remained tied at zero through most of the game even though the U.S. had a lot of good shots at scoring.  They even scored a goal at one point but the referee waved it off because the U.S. player was off-sides.  As the game went on, you could feel the pressure begin to mount; it seemed inevitable that the U.S. would be eliminated with so little time left in the game.  It must have been tempting for the players on the U.S. team to become desperate, to give up on their game plan and to just start taking crazy shots at the goal hoping to get lucky.  The 90^th minute expired and the game went in to stoppage time, the time added on to compensate for parts of the game where played had stopped but the clock continued to run.  After 91 minutes of scoreless soccer, the U.S. made a quality team play that lead to the game winning goal which allowed them to win their group and advance to the next round: perseverance. 

Ministry often feels like that.  Sometimes we feel like we’ve been pouring all the energy we’ve got into this for a very long time and we have very little to show for it.  We wonder why God hasn’t rewarded our faithful service with more tangible results.  We wonder what we are doing wrong.  Perhaps there is even fear that the clock is ticking on our future.  In times like that, it is tempting to give up on the things that make us who we are; things like honoring God in all that we do and discipling and serving those around us.  It may even be tempting to just give up altogether when all our best shots seem to come to nothing. 

But our God calls us to perseverance.  Our God calls us to remain faithful to the identity and mission that He has given us and to trust that He will take care of the results.  Our God calls us to place our trust in Him even as things seem dark and hopeless.  We are a people who give our all until the final whistle because we serve the One who can work miracles in the 91^st minute.  

I'm not a Steelers fan but...

this is just good stuff!

My 10 Favorite Things about the San Antonio Spurs

Ok, so most of the stuff I have posted so far has been pretty serious. I thought I would lighten things up a bit with some reflections on my favorite basketball team as I sit here and watch them beat the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the NBA playoffs.


10. 4 Rings, soon to be 5?

9. Tony Parker's ridiculous quickness.

8. Popovich's genius and discipline

7. Manu Ginobli's awkward but amazing athleticism.

6. Being in the hunt every year.

5. Relentless team defense

4. Frenchmen, Argentinians, and a Virgin Islander - the true Globe Trotters

3. David Robinson - the reason I first became a fan

2. Big Fundamentals

1. Team work, Commitment, and Trust.