Friday, January 24, 2014

The Power of Sport


I just returned from a brief trip to Kingston, Jamaica to work with our friend and colleague, Andre’ Virtue of Whole Life Sports. We had a remarkable four days of meetings with leaders of a seminary, schools, sports clubs, social agencies, sports federations, and even the Minister of Education.

 

David Pearson of Jamaica Theological Seminary quoted one statistic that speaks to the power of sports in their society and probably in the world at large. He said that there have been just two days in recent Jamaican history on which there were zero murders. One was the day the “Reggae Boyz” qualified for the World Cup of Football in 1997 and the other was the day Usain Bolt won his first Olympic gold medal. It seems that these two victories by their national heroes so captured everyone’s imaginations that it even dispelled the ever-present force of violent crime.

 

This simply reinforces my commitment to be among those who make a difference in the lives of sportspeople with the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Sport is a tremendous force in society; that can either be good or bad. The nature of those who wield such influence will be the determining factor. Let’s be agents of God’s transforming power and watch what happens.

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