Integrating Faith and Athletics

To show our faith through athletics we must focus on our departmental goals of athletic excellence combined with academic distinction while growing our moral character. We must not compartmentalize our faith separate from our sport. In the Bible we are told, "in all you do, do for the glory of God." God expects us to perform in a way that exemplifies our belief in Him. We should honor Him with our effort, action, and enthusiasm.

The integration of faith into athletics at Oklahoma Christian University is divided into four parts. First, we strive to concentrate on developing the entire person. In 1 Timothy 4, the author tells us that physical training is good, but we should also train ourselves in godliness and it will have benefits now and for eternity. To do this, we may pray before and after games, be gracious in victory and defeat, and show love to our teammates and opponents. These principles should be modeled by coaches at all times and mimicked by players and fans.

Secondly, we should have a great passion for our God given talents. John Wesley preached in open fields and great crowds would come to listen. When asked why so many people came to hear him he would reply, "I simply set myself on fire and people come and watch me burn" (Sanborn 2008). We must set ourselves on fire because God has given us the gift to coach or play a sport. We must show everyone that watches us that we have gratitude for these gifts; we are working hard to multiply these gifts and encouraging others by our inspired performances. Our passion should be our greatest asset.

The third area of concentration is realizing that our athletic teams can be a very fertile mission field. We all recruit athletes that are not Christians. This gives us a chance to plant the seed through our example, our commitment, our passion, and our excellence. We can build a curiosity that can give our faith the chance to be seen, and through that gain credibility so our athletes can see our excitement in our faith, and how it effect our lives.

Finally, we have the opportunity to give God glory. It is always easy to give God the glory in victory, but our effort, actions, and enthusiasm are things that we can control. Through each of those we can show our appreciation to our Lord for the gifts He has bestowed upon us. In John 10:10 Jesus said, "I have come so that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." Jesus has given us a great life; we repay him for this with doing our best with all our performance.

Our athletic teams wear the word "Christian" on their uniforms; this holds us to a higher standard, on and off the field, court, track, or course. Our faith will drive us to accomplish great things for our athletes, our university, our Creator, and ourselves.

EAGLE EYE BLOG

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