Friends: There are winners and there are losers and I wonder if there will be sports in heaven.  No, seriously.  Meanwhile, I pray your Easter was blessed and Christ’s resurrection continues to resonate in your soul.  Have a great week!  Bob

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Spirituality Column #907

April 2, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Sporting Spirit

By Bob Walters

“I hate losing even more than I love winning.” – Jimmy Connors, 1970s tennis champ

“God loves to see his kids play.” Russ Blowers (1924-2007), preacher of the Gospel

Please don’t blow this off just because it seems like a dumb question: Will there be sports in heaven? This coming from a once-upon-a-time sportswriter … me.

This is something I’ve been thinking about, theologically and unsatisfactorily, for the past several months.  We’ll talk about eternal heaven in a minute, but first let’s start with sports, today’s 24/7/365 here-and-now-and-always presence of God’s kids at play.

Sports, overall, is as prominent a cultural idol as currently exists.  And we’re lucky.  We have time for sports because we have conquered most elements of human survival.  We can afford to worry about stuff that doesn’t really matter and oh, how we expend emotional energy on contests that neither affect us nor that we can control.

Note the pro-football jerseys in church on game days.  How’s your NCAA basketball bracket doing?  Is this finally Purdue’s year? (Breathe deeply, Boiler faithful.)  Baseball’s opening day last week marked the initiation of spring melding into the boys of summer.  It’s Easter, so the Master’s golf tournament, yea verily, draws nigh.

Closer to home, what’s up with your kids’ travel sports schedules? Or even the local, no-tryouts, everybody-gets-a-trophy, two-or-three-times-a- week rec leagues for baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, etc.?  How about … swim team! … sunrise practices and steamy hours in poolside bleachers? God loves to see his kids play; we’re just waiting for practice to be over. Breakfast is a pop tart; dinner likely a drive-through.

Sports breeds, and needs, a competitive spirit which I don’t really think we’ll need beyond the pearly gates.  It also develops confidence, strength, courage, character, and perseverance, all exceptional and needed virtues in this life; love dominates the next.

My central negative issue with sports comes to a point at the notion of “identity.”  I’ve never liked being call a “fan” of anything, although my own young life and well into adulthood was filled with tennis. I played, taught, officiated, and was a fan of the 1970s era pro tennis tour, most players of which (men and women) I called lines for at their tournaments in Indy.

So, I was a “tennis guy.”  Hence, I quote feisty champion Jimmy Connors above. 

My problem with our tenacious current cultural idolatry of sports, in the eternal view, is that our sports passions – you know, the “We’re Number One!” “Wait ‘til next year!” “We was robbed!” passions – don’t translate well into heavenly grace and love.

A few weeks ago, that “grace and love” part popped into perspective. Ah ha! If we want to examine the eternal worth of sports in our lives, it is not in the win-loss metric to be better than the other guy (or gal). In heaven – once we’re there – we’re all even-steven. We will play and not only enjoy ourselves; we’ll cheer the skills, grace, and passion of others. Beyond winning and losing is God – with a smile – watching us play,

I possess a “new heaven and new earth” view of the eternal (Revelation 21); i.e., heaven as a perfect, busy, sin-free earth as opposed to a vaporous, floating praise-fest.

Rewards? Yeah, but who knows what that means? Friend and pastor Dave Faust says of rewards, “Whatever they are, we won’t be disappointed.”

And there it is.

Sports with joy … without being disappointed?  How heavenly that would be.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) was yelled at by most pro tennis players of the 70s.

Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #826 (9-13-22), “Naturally at Odds.” Not everyone is a candidate for the Christian hard-sell, but sticking up for the truth is basic to Christian faith.  See the column below.  Blessings!  Bob

(P.S. – RE: Paragraph 4, I am now aware that the Colts tied at Houston, 20-20 in OT, and Will Power won the Indy Car title on Sunday at Laguna Seca. Cheers.)

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Spirituality Column #826

September 13, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Naturally at Odds

By Bob Walters

“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist.  But at the bottom of the glass, God is waiting for you.” – Werner Heisenberg, 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics, theory of quantum mechanics.

I often run into my engaging and friendly neighbor Jeff on my evening walks with our little dog Kramer. Jeff is a sports fan, knows a lot about auto racing, has two kids in budding journalism careers, and was a college lecturer in philosophy and writing.

Jeff’s obvious life interests closely mirror my previous (and I might add, long ago) career in sports writing and sports / auto racing media relations, so our conversations are lively.  I’ve worked with a lot of people he’s read about.

Truth be told, while I stay in touch with a handful of good friends from my sports days, for the most part I truly no longer “follow” sports.  For example, as I write this on Saturday, I know it is the opening weekend of the NFL but have no idea who the Colts are playing, or where.  I couldn’t tell you who is leading (or won?) the Indy Car points.

As I mentioned last week, in retirement I now drive a school bus.  I still write a lot, and virtually all of my writing is about faith life in Jesus Christ: this weekly column, our weekly Mustard Seed Bible study packets, a monthly sermon / service at a senior living center, an occasional church communion homily, and various correspondence.

Plus, I’m reading all the time – virtually all of it “religious stuff” or cultural / political commentary.  Like Dolly Parton once said, “I have opinions about everything and everybody,” but here, to preserve the focus, we stick to the central topic of life in Christ.

Which brings us back around to my evening walks with Kramer.

Jeff is a wise, erudite, chatty, and world-worn guy … with no use for God.

We encounter folks often, don’t we, who are not candidates for the Christian hard-sell?  Jeff is one of those guys.  He knows of my Christian writing, but I think the only thing of mine he’s ever read is a Dale Earnhart obituary I wrote in 2001.  Jeff knows I believe in Christ and for now that’s enough.  We intellectually spar and laugh.   

In a recent evening chat Jeff mused, “You should talk to my brother,” who I was surprised to learn is a Christian minister … though in a denomination not noted for its, um, biblical precision.  My knee jerk question to Jeff was, “Does your brother believe the Bible?”  And Jeff’s (not his real name) knee jerk answer was, “Yes … but not literally.”

“Good Lord,” I responded.  “You’re not supposed to believe it literally.  Does your brother believe the Bible is true?”   “I suppose he does,” was Jeff’s smiling response.

Sigh.  That’s about par for philosophers; they think it is their job to be the definers and purveyors of truth, when that job belongs to Jesus Christ.  The Bible is stories, poetry, parables, metaphors, symbolism, allegory, history, God’s word … and the truth. 

But, “Jesus lived, died, was buried, and resurrected?” That’s one “literal” part folks reject, but the fact of the resurrection – its literal occurrence – is the cornerstone of faith, forgiveness, and salvation. If that’s not literal and true, there is no Bible or Church.

It’s an unfortunate development of the past 150 years, as theology has tried to compete academically with science, that “proving the Bible literally” has become a thing.

Faith is lived, not proven. It’s what philosophers would call a “category mistake.”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) invited Jeff to church; Jeff still prefers CBS News.

Spirituality Column #324
January 29, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters

Spirituality Column #273
January 31, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

No Contest for Real God
By Bob Walters

How ironic it is that while much of our culture is quick to deify athletes, large swaths of our culture  want nothing to do with God.

Not really.

Not the actual REAL God, the one who created things for His own glory, who created us in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27), who reconciles all things back to His Holy name through the saving grace of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18). The God whose love, mercy, judgment and eternity are all promised in the Bible.

Let’s not confuse worshipping THAT God with the much more comfortable folk-hero worship of athletic deeds, heroic honors, won-loss records (heavy on the “won”), and glowing championships through which we experience immense but untoward and vicarious pride. That’s the god we want; we can control that god. We can buy a jersey or a game ticket. We can cheer or jeer. That athlete god has no hold on us; we are free to go worship elsewhere whenever we get bored or find a better god.

Sports are fun, no doubt. Athletic contests – when we participate in them – reveal great truths to us about our physical skills, mental perseverance, and endurance. I worked in and around college and pro sports for a large portion of my career – with enormous enjoyment and satisfaction – as a sportswriter and sports publicist. Been there, done that, had an all-access pass.

But here’s another holy irony. While there are exceptions, most athletes I’ve been around are quick to point out they are not God, or even gods. Athletes work hard, respect their abilities and those of their opponents. Athletes know that a locker room, a basketball court, a football field, a race track, a whatever, constitute an eventually equalizing and humbling human arena that, win or lose, enforces the earthly limitations – the non-Godly impermanence – of one’s physical, mental, and athletic capabilities.

That’s the inside truth of sports – limitations. When we deify an athlete, we are accepting limits because we are able to define what we expect that god to be. When we are disappointed, it’s real easy to swap gods.

When we accept the inside truth of God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth and all things seen and unseen, then we have a God we can’t control. We have a God so big He gives us the freedom to find Him in faith and to worship Him with endurance and assurance.

Don’t worship a limited god we make; worship the unlimited God that made us.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com, www.commonchristianity.blogspot.com) figures more folks would love Tim Tebow unconditionally if all they knew about him was his humanity. His Christian faith is truly annoying (frightening?) because it’s about God, not the fans.