We watch athletes achieve seemingly impossible physical accomplishments and continue to set records and new standards of excellence.  We gawk, admire, and talk about the latest triumphs as if they were impossibilities only accomplished by super-humans.  But do we talk about their commitment and training?

Professional sports thrive on the existence of “everyone else”.  Without the gawking and admiration by millions of us who aren’t playing at “that level” professional sports would be amateur sports.  The World Cup would be played on a sandlot or in the park.  The football game would be played behind the middle school on a Saturday morning,  or the NCAA Final Four championship would be played in a YMCA gym somewhere in midtown.  Our passion for watching… fuels and funds the empire of sports.

Spectators are the fuel that drives the ego of professional sports.  I sit in my “lucky seat” when my teams play and root them on to victory.  I marvel at the coaching skills, play calling, and athleticism when all is going well.  And I berate them all when they can’t seem to score a single point or fend off the opposing team.

As men, we somehow feel that we might be able to do what those athletes do.  So we watch as live vicariously through their actions.  We stand around our tailgates prior to the game and talk about our glory days in sports. We hear stories about the one kickball game in 4th grade that Jim dominated, the touchdown pass Mike caught, the goal that Pierre kicked from midfield, or the basket Josh sunk at the buzzer to move his team to victory.

We all believe that we could have done that… if we just trained a little harder.  We could have had a shot at the “bigs” if we simply hadn’t “let off the gas.”  The same holds true in our careers or hobbies.  We could have been greater if we just gave it a little more effort and trained a little harder – right?

But we sit in our recliners, talk about what could have been, and root our favorite athletes on to the big prize.  We get behind them… because we want to be associated with winners.

I don’t think we would be stretching to make the leap from sports to faith.  For too many of us, we celebrate our faith like the guys around the taligate.  We talk about that one good deed we did last summer, or the mission project we went on a couple of years ago.  And like a good armchair quarterback, we nod along with the discussions containing the words “Jesus”, “faith”, and “God”, because we understand the mechanics of faith – just like we understand the mechanics of our favorite sport.

But are we willing to do the training?  Could we train a little harder?  Do we admire the life of Christ so much that we answer His challenge to get in the ring and follow Him?  Or are we perfectly content to sit on the sidelines and coach everyone else from our easy chair?

Living well and accumulating wealth is easy.  Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ve done something great by becoming a successful businessman.  There are millions of them walking around.  Try something hard. Elevate your game to new level by training to be a disciple of Christ.  Shun the bad habits, walk away from unethical business deals.  Look at your decisions and determine if Jesus Christ would have made the same call.

We give professional sports our undivided attention and contribute billions of dollars to watch a few men and women who decided to elevate and commit to a higher level of competition.  Are we willing to give God our undivided attention and actually become one of the men and women in the game?  Or is faith something to be observed, watched, talked about… but not really “played”.

What would happen in Christian men began to train like Tim Tebow, Perform with the heart of Rudy Ruettiger, or approach faith with the same mental commitment of Tiger Woods?  God has given ALL of us the ability to do these things… we just have to get off the couch and start doing it.  We’ve got enough coaches… now we need some players.
Download Article