Today I’d like to share some thoughts about the
value of long-term, relational service with sportspeople. I awoke this morning
to a richly rewarding facebook message from a young man in San Pedro Sula,
Honduras. We met in 2009 at a Tae Kwon Do club where he was an aspiring TKD
competitor in training. I had brought a friend and colleague to San Pedro Sula
from Tegucigalpa via bus, complete with stomach distress and death defying
roads. My friend is a 5th degree black belt, a member of the Martial
Arts Hall of fame, and a tremendous trainer. Our host a the club was very gracious
and welcomed us warmly. He kindly received the sport devotional book we gave
him and translated a page of it from English to Spanish for his students while
we were there.
Among those TKD students was the young man from
whom I received the following message. “My dear
friend I’m writing you from Honduras. I was a taekwondo athlete. Now I’m a man
of god. I’m in a dilemma. How I can take my sport taekwondo with design and
path that god is leading me now? I need your advice and wisdom I really
appreciate this. Huge hug from Honduras.”
I was thrilled to receive the message and
replied with the thoughts below, copying my friend the 5th degree
black belt. “Bendiciones, mi hermano. Gracias para
tu mensaje maravilloso. (Blessings, my brother. Thank you for your wonderful message.)
- Meditate upon these scriptures: Romans 12:1-2, Colossians 3:23, I Corinthians 9:24-27.
2. Pray, dedicating Tae Kwon Do to the Lord Jesus. Ask Him to
enable you to compete in His name and to His glory.
3) Consider how you may make
TKD training an act of worship. Expect to experience the Lord's presence as you
train and compete. Expect to experience His pleasure with you as you train and
compete.”
We met this young man and spoke maybe twice,
several years ago. We left the devotional book. Its use was emphasized by the
club’s coach and some of the club’s highest achieving competitors. A couple of
years later, I took a number of the books to them in Spanish. We have been
facebook friends for a few years now, occasionally sending a message or liking
his photos from competitions. He’s on my list for weekly devotions in Spanish
and he sees my daily posts of devotional thoughts for sportspeople in Spanish.
Even with these seemingly weak, distant, and
infrequent methods of ministry, he has become “a man of God.” It’s like Jesus’
example in the parable. The man sows the seed on the ground and goes to bed. He
awakens the next day and the seed has sprouted, all by itself. We sowed the
seed of the Gospel years ago and with little personal nurture, it has developed
into “a man of God.” Please commit yourself and your ministry to long-term,
relational service to the people of sport and trust the Lord’s mighty Spirit to
nurture and develop the seeds planted, even years and thousands of miles away.
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