Sin’s Effect on Sports

Throughout this school year in the Athletic News, we’ve been trying to build a biblical worldview of sports. We’ve seen that God’s grand purpose in giving us sports to enjoy is to lead us to an awe and worship of Him. Unfortunately, sin has corrupted every one of God’s good gifts, including sports. As this section in our Athletic Handbook puts it:
However, because our hearts are corrupted by sin, instead of worshipping and serving God and thanking Him for the created things He has given us to enjoy, we tend to worship and serve the created things. We tend to pridefully take credit for our own talents and abilities. (Rom. 1:21-25) We often forsake Christ, the fountain of living waters, and turn to sports, a broken cistern that can never truly satisfy the longings of our soul. (Jer. 2:12-13)
Can you think of ways in which our culture worships and serves sports? How about these? We “idolize” great athletes and call them “heroes.” The demand for major sports events is so high that tickets are often in the hundreds, if not the thousands of dollars! We push our kids at earlier and earlier ages to specialize in a sport and play it year round. We get more excited about our favorite sporting events than we do the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sports are great when they are kept in their rightful place, but parents, please do your part to ensure that your child has not elevated them to an object of worship in his or her life. If you ever see evidence that LPCS is out of balance in the way we are treating sports, please talk to me. I would love to hear your perspective!

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