Let the games begin… Australia is a nation infatuated with sport. We are tribal about our sporting teams, whether it’s: Manly Sea-Eagles, Sydney FC, The Swans, The Tahs, The Wallabies or the Australian Swim team. In Australia we follow sport like a religion – we follow sports people like gods.
Don Bradman, Cathy Freeman, Ian Thorpe and maybe even Stephanie Rice (Australia’s first gold medal today) are all god-like figures. Every week more people fill sports stadiums to worship the gods of their sport – than people gather to worship Jesus. It’s easy to idolise sport.
So much money is invested into Australian sport. Is it really a good investment?
For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:8)
Physical training DOES have some value. There are positive benefits of physical training. However, the value is PUNY when considering the big picture of eternity. Physical training only has value here and now. Godliness, on the other hand, has value now AND in the life to come.
In 1 Timothy 4:7-8 Paul is urging Timothy to train himself to be godly. That’s the training that matters. That’s the training that will last. Physical fitness will perish. Sporting results will be forgotten. But godliness lasts forever.
If you’re training for the next Olympics or if you’re simply enthralled by your television watching the current Olympics – make sure you remember what will really last, and train yourself to be godly.
Are you tempted to idolise sport and turn athletes into gods? Turn, Serve and Wait.
Turn from idols, serve the true and living God and wait for Jesus.
Pic from ABC News.
PS – Mark Sayers wrote a great post contrasting the Olympics in China and the Georgia/Russia War: The gospel of the Olympics
Good post, mate.
The thing I like about Aussie athletes though, is that they’re not god-like. When Stephanie Rice won the other night, she said something like, “Wow. I carn’t boolieve it. Awesome!”
Doesn’t get much earthier.
good call.
The thing I like about Aussie athletes though, is that they’re not god-like.
maybe that makes worship of them all the more foolish!
This is why I don’t exercise, so I won’t be a stumbling block and people wont start worshipping me.
are you sure it’s not laziness???
But Luke does raise a good point, which I’ve been (trying to avoid) thinking about this week.
I like to go to the gym, at least partly because I want to be cut.
But I’m starting to realise that all my reasons for wanting to be cut are sinful. Of course, I want to be fit for health reasons, but mostly I want:
– to look good (vanity)
– to be seen to look good (pride)
– to be ‘wanted’ by the ladies (selfish – unhelpful for them; superficial and worldly – I ought not want to attract the types of girls that will attract)
– to look better than the guys in the catalogue etc (envy)
etc.
But I’m totally confused now: I don’t want to give up the eternal quest for wash-board abs. Am I just disobediently refusing to submit this area of my life to the Lordship of Christ?
Is there a way to divorce myself from the above sinful reasons and still end up with a hot bod? Or should I resign myself to man-boobs and a keg, knowing that it will bring the superior pleasure of obeying Jesus?
Dave, as my youth leader (yeah, sorry… you’ll always be that to me :D) and anyone else, what are your thoughts?
hey hayesy,
great comment.
a really good self-diagnosis of your attitude and motivation. honest stuff – i like it.
i wrote on that original post your linked to:
I figure I want to be fit and healthy for 2 reasons: 1) It’s a good thing and 2) So that I can run longer in the Christian life. I figure if I can’t look after myself at 26 then it will be pretty difficult at 46 or 56.
i can see a real temptation to be vain, proud, selfish and envious in getting fit. the mirrors at the gym really aren’t helpful! i am noticing an increasing amount of vanity amongst teenage boys at the gym in how they perceive themselves. i think just keep checking your motivations. and if your motivations are skewed, pray that God would change them.
be fit so you function better. be fit so you can live longer. and then function better and live longer for the sake of the Jesus and proclaiming him.
you might work out what it means for you personally to be fit and well… and then when you reach that goal you stop. you don’t obsess about how you look – you don’t train as if an olympic or body-building medal is dependant on it.
eg – if it’s a good and healthy thing to do 30 minutes of exercise a day. do it. and rather than spending 90 minutes a day doing exercise it gives you another 60 minutes to be trained in godliness: read the Bible, pray, tell people about Jesus, help the needy, write a letter to a missionary, do some photocopies at the church office, etc…
what do you think?
(i don’t think of you just as a youth group kid – my thinking goes back further than that… sunday school kid/blackboard duster!)
haha
will respond more later
but blackboard duster! haha I’ve told so many people about that :D good times
Actually, I think I could boil down the comment I was intending to leave to this sentence:
“But I like those sinful things!”
learn to love Jesus more than those sinful things.
learn to hate sin.
praying that God’s Spirit would do that work in you… and me!