For Whom Are You Playing?

What follows is the transcript of a talk which was delivered at a recent FCA Power Camp by one of my summer interns. Jessica Anderson is about to be a senior swimmer (200 and 400 Individual Medley) at Southern Illinois University (USA). J shared her heart with our campers in such a remarkable way that I felt compelled to ask her to turn her talk into text and to allow me to share it with you. Please take a few moments to read and to then reflect upon her expression of identity as a sportsperson.

 

For Whom Are You Playing?

Finding Identity outside of sport.

 

For years when people would ask me who I am, I would answer with the same generic statement: daughter, student or athlete. However true those titles were, I found my most important identity as an eighteen year-old, as a child of God.

Until I gave my life over to Christ, I had a one dimensional identity—I only defined myself as an athlete and it owned me and it overtook me, my every thought and decision was focused on how to become a better athlete. I made many sacrifices to try and achieve as much as I could through sport and because of that, I found success. Although, it was never as fulfilling as I thought it would be. In high school, our team won three state championships, won a national-runner-up title, and I got a Division I college scholarship, but I always found myself wanting more. I wanted to be faster, I wanted to win more races, and no matter how much success I had, I always was left feeling empty. I was never satisfied with who I was as an athlete because although I didn’t know it, I was incomplete. I was missing the most important member of my team…Jesus Christ.

Although I grew up knowing about Him, I didn’t give my life to Jesus until my freshman year of college. I then began to find completion and joy through sport. I realized, for the first time, that He created me as an athlete to glorify Him. Now, for the first time, I wasn’t competing for my teammates, my parents, or myself. I was practicing every day and swimming every yard for Jesus and He never failed to meet me in the pool.

I fully realized where my identity truly lied when after my sophomore year I underwent a reconstructive shoulder surgery that kept me away from sport for about nine months. There was no guarantee I would ever be able to compete again. However, I found more joy and completeness in those nine months than in the years I had spent swimming prior to that. Jesus never left my side and he showed me I was not just a swimmer, I was so much more than that, I was HIS and that is the greatest gift that has ever been given to me.

I was blessed with a miracle recovery that not even the doctors could understand and was able to get in the pool only three months post-surgery. I was again able to compete in the sport God designed me to do. Although, I now do not compete for myself—every day I choose the identity of Jesus before all else and rather than using swimming as only a sport, I now use it as a form of worship. Most days, the pool serves as my church. I feel God’s presence most often when my face is in the water staring at the line on the bottom of the pool than in any other place in my life. I constantly feel His favor and grace during sport now and I know He is pleased when I compete for Him.

I have also learned how to look for Christ’s presence within the world of sport. I constantly look for reminders so I can remember for whom I am competing. I try to look for crosses in my sporting venues. Sometimes it’s where two lines intersect on a field or where a net crosses, but most often it is the way the lines cross on the pool walls that are a constant visual reminder of my Savior.

I encourage all people of sport to look for their true identity in Christ, to choose every day to worship Him through sport and to use their gifts as athletes to glorify Him. I promise them they will find it is the most fulfilling and satisfying way to compete and live. To live everyday with Christ’s name imprinted on your heart reminding you for whom you compete. Joshua 1:9- “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and so not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”