Below is a reflection from December of 2009
which is also included in the new book, Free to Compete – Reflections on
Sport from a Christian Perspective. (www.crosstrainingpublishing.com
ISBN: 978-1-938254-15-4 paperback 176 pages) I hope it both challenges and
encourages you as you serve the men and women of sport.
The Sport Chaplains’
Dirty Little Secret
After
many years of serving coaches and competitors in various sports and almost as
many years of networking with sports chaplains and sport mentors around the USA
and the world, I’ve become convinced that our dirty little secret is that many,
if not most, of us are just as performance based in our sense of personal worth
as those whom we serve in the world of sport.
We can
all see how driven by their last performance our charges are in how they
perceive their personal identity, even those who claim a relationship with
Christ Jesus. We all hear players say things like, “I’m 7 and 5.”
That is a direct statement of worth based on wins and losses. They might
protest when asked about that, but it’s still an indicator of what’s really
important to them. If we ask, “How are you doing?” many will reply by
stating their team’s record or their personal statistics rather than anything
deeper than their most recent results. I usually get the same sorts of
replies from coaches, administrators, fans and even sports chaplains.
For
sports chaplains, we usually point to more “spiritual” results. “85
players came to chapel today.” “15 players committed their lives to
Christ last week.” “Our team has 80% of the players attending Bible study
each week.” “10 of the 12 coaches are in our weekly Coaches Bible
studies.” Honorable results all, but they must not become the basis for
our identity or the defining marks of the validity of our ministries.
Would I be less valuable to God if 5 players attended chapel instead of
50? Would Christ be less pleased with me if this year no one committed
his life to Christ through my ministry? Am I a failure if no one wants to
start a Coaches Bible Study? Is my identity tied directly to my
performance of “spiritual tasks?”
Why is
this important? If I find my worth and identity in my performance, I will
do whatever it takes to get to the desired results. I’ll manipulate
people to acquire the decisions which validate my ministry. I’ll be sure
to report the numbers which satisfy those who finance my ministry, even if
they’re a little exaggerated. I’ll choose programs over people, methods
over relationships and masses over individuals because they provide the results
which define my success and my worth.
If we are
to have any hope of being agents of Christ’s transforming power in the lives of
the people of sport, we must find our worth in our relationship with Him.
At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, as He is being baptized by John in the
Jordan River, He comes up from the water and hears a voice saying, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well
pleased." (Mark 1:11) To this point, Jesus had zero followers. He had
performed zero miracles. He had healed zero people. He had raised
zero people from the dead. He had accomplished nothing to earn His
Father’s love and approval. He is pleasing to God the Father because
Jesus is His Son. That’s all. The relationship was the basis for
God’s pleasure and approval. Jesus was identified by His relationship
with His Father, period. That continued throughout His life on the earth
and beyond.
This is
pretty easy for me to see because it’s very easy for me to fall prey to such a
performance based mentality. It is a constant battle to check my
attitudes, my values, my priorities, my methods and my relationships to see if
they are reflective of a heart which finds its worth in relationship with
Christ or if it seems driven by performance and easily defined results.
It’s very easy to find my emotions and perspective directly reflective of the
most recent results of the teams I serve. It is also very easy to find my
sense of identity being tied directly to the success or failure of our
ministry’s most recent events. If you were honest, you’d probably confess
the same.
So what
shall we do? Let’s regularly evaluate our ministries to see how clearly
we communicate each one’s intrinsic worth to our loving Father. Let’s be
sure to lead others in ways which value relationships over results. Let’s
honor faithfulness over success. Let’s guard our hearts from the
insidious cancer of performance based worth and prefer to live in the freedom and
security of knowing we’re well pleasing to God through our relationship with
Christ Jesus. Having such a secure basis for our own worth will leave us
free to serve selflessly and to help others find their own freedom from the
burdensome yoke of slavery to performance.
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