Defining Moments

This has been a big week in the global world of sport. In the USA, the NBA finals wrapped up with a game 7 win by the Los Angeles Lakers over the Boston Celtics. Across the rest of the earth, the World Cup of football has dominated the last week and will the next three weeks. During those contests and more so in the post-game shows has been a steady stream of analysis, opinion and pontificating about who’s among the best of all time, comparisons between Kobe and MJ, historical comparisons between teams of eras gone by, nationalistic disgrace or pride and defining moments for players, coaches and game officials. Such moments are the subjects of often repeated replays, from multiple angles and with seemingly limitless opinions and second-guessing from self-appointed experts.

• Sports talk radio knuckleheads worked feverishly to find a defining moment for Kobe Bryant’s career to rival that of Michael Jordan’s jump shot over Craig Ehlo for a championship.

• Football commentators wondered if a defining moment for Wayne Rooney would appear so as to overcome his red card in the last World Cup.

• Many in the UK are hoping for any kind of moment which can overcome their melancholy feelings toward their side’s manager.

• Football fans and even casual observers in the USA are hoping their side is not defined by a disallowed goal in the game with Slovenia.

• I am sure that the referee who made that call also hopes that does not become his defining moment.

• Robert Green, the England goalkeeper is surely hoping he gets another chance in goal and can overcome his unfortunate moment from the game with the USA.

 

Whether player, coach, official, sport chaplain or sport mentor, we all encounter defining moments in our careers. They either enhance our lives like a beautiful piece of jewelry or they hang from our necks like the proverbial albatross. Such moments linger like the warmest memories and fondest relationships or they dog our hearts and minds like Cujo, snarling at our heels and reminding us of our failures.

 

We who love and serve the people of sport must find ways to keep such definition at bay. Rather than simply going with the flow of popular culture and sports media, we are uniquely qualified to help these people be defined by other matters. The world wants to define them by their performance in sport; we can help them realize their lives are defined by the infinite worth of Christ’s blood which was shed for them. SportsCenter wants to define them by a single moment of either success or failure on a court, pitch, field or mat; we can help them be more strongly identified by the life of Christ which they intrinsically exhibit at every moment of every day. Let’s faithfully serve the men and women of sport and let’s not fall into the trap of foolishly defining the ones we love by moments of success or failure. Christ’s performance through life, death, resurrection and ascension, on their behalf and ours, is a truly defining moment which endures beyond the memories of fans, media and even videotape.