Philly Rephlections

It’s been a week since I woke up in a world where a Philadelphia sports team has a won a championship. I kind of like the feeling. But I’ve also had a chance to take a breath and consider what will linger with me in years to come. Here are some things that come to mind.

• I think the Jamie Moyer story is a great one. As a kid he skipped school to go to the 1980 World Series Championship Parade. Twenty-eight years later he is riding in it himself. By all accounts Moyer is a class guy who seems to have a humble appreciation for the opportunity he has to be playing ball at age 45. Hope he finishes his career here.

• Brad Lidge has nerves of steel. He also seems, judging from his comments in the midst of the victory celebration on the field after Game 5, to be a genuine believer. His short, but very natural and sincere, expression of thanks to Jesus Christ in a scene of bedlam got my attention. Interesting how that little video clip doesn’t show up in the network highlights. It does in mine.

• Being originally from the Deep South, I actually understand what Charlie Manual is saying. He talks like all my relatives from the Appalachian hills. When he opens his mouth I feel a little closer to home.

• A world championship in baseball won’t change hearts, won’t end poverty and racism and crime in the city. But it might give folks something to talk about when nothing else seems appropriate. And it will make wearing bright red cool – at least for a while.

• My enduring memory? Being able to sit in my father-in-law Walt’s hospital room with my son Grant and watch the Phillies win the World Series. Walt has been in a hospital bed for four months now. More often than not, if I’ve seen a great sports event in the past 25 years, it’s been with Walt. Apart from being physically at the game, I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. To be in that small room huddling next to a twelve inch screen, trying not to make too much noise during quiet hours, was a privilege and a blast.

What are your enduring memories of this World Series? What memories will you pass on?

Worst to First

This is the best time of year for baseball – playoffs and World Series! This year the Tampa Bay Rays are the story – a ‘worst to first’ team in the playoffs for the first time in their history (see Cubs, it can’t be THAT hard!). During Spring Training this year, Tim Challies interviewed one of the Ray’s players, Ben Zobrist. Ben is a Christian who has some interesting things to say about what it’s like to be a Major League baseball player and authentic disciple of Christ at the same time.

One of the things that struck me in the interview was how he works to try to stay connected to his local church during the season.

TC: How do you stay connected to your local church during the baseball season? What role does your home church play in your life during the season?
BZ: We listen to our home church pastor Byron Yawn’s sermons through podcast. I am part of a men’s Theology class at church as well, and one of the men sends me an mp3 of the study that week. We keep up with prayer requests and activities through massive church emails. Pastor Byron calls every so often to check on us to see how we are doing. We also try to do a mass update to everyone every so often to let everyone know how we are doing and how to pray. Prayer is the main role the local church plays in our lives during the season. Prayer is powerful and much needed as it seems there are few ballplayers that have a strong connection to a local church back home that is praying for them.

The Point: Few men have more challenging schedules than baseball players in season. Let’s follow Ben’s example of creative effort to stay connected to his church regardless of his schedule.

Zobrist is also committed to study, including Richard Baxter’s "The Saint’s Everlasting Rest" and A. W. Pink’s "The Attributes of God", among the books he has read.

If you want to read the whole article, go here

Have You Prayed For Your Sports Hero Today?

This is maybe my favorite week of the sports year – the NCAA Finals, early season baseball, start of the NHL playoffs, playoff races in the NBA, Derby preps, and of course, The Masters. So, pardon the indulgence, but I had to drop in a sports blog.

Tim Challies, a very insightful blogger (www.challies.com), recently did an interview with Ben Zobrist, a young baseball player with the Tampa Bay Rays. I found this guy to be somewhat unusual for the Christian athletes I’ve seen interviewed. How? Well, when asked about recent books he’s read he named Richard Baxter’s “The Saint’s Everlasting Rest”, and A. W. Pink’s “The Attributes of God” – not exactly Sports Center material. Second is his strong connection to his local church. Even on the road Zobrist has found ways to stay up on sermon series, and maintain fellowship by staying part of a men’s theology class and sending email updates to his pastor and church family. Here are some excerpts from the Q&A:

Do you feel any particular kind of increased responsibility as both a Christian and an athlete?

I do sense an increased responsibility as a Christian athlete in our culture, because our culture exalts performance so much. There are many kids and adults alike who dream of being in our shoes. I believe as a Christian athlete, we are called to use that highly respected platform to deflect any praise to Whom it really belongs and to help people see beyond the glory of a man-made game or ballpark.

How can we pray for Christian athletes? What particular needs or challenges do athletes have that require prayer?

Pray first and foremost against idolatry for us. It is easy to make success in our sport an idol when you want to be excellent. It is easy to set ourselves above others and most grievously above God when people treat you “special”, almost like an idol. Pray for right perspective and constant humility against our prideful flesh. Pray against temptation of all things worldly. And pray for spiritual openness and conversation amongst believers. Athletes tend to have hard outer shells and they think it is weak to share their hearts.

While we don’t want to spiritually idolize an athlete any more than we want to culturally idolize one, it is good and right to rejoice in God’s work among those who might have the least sense of inherent need for Him. Why not pick a favorite athlete and make him a regular focus of prayer?

To read the entire interview with Ben Zobrist here.

Little League – Big Opportunity

It is spring – and that means Little League to many families. Whether it is baseball, softball, soccer, or any other game; the spring sports season can occupy huge chunks of time in our family schedules. How can we make the best use of the time the family invests to let our little Jimmy Rollins run the basis or our petit Mia Hamm cover midfield? I’ve got a son who does fall soccer and spring baseball and here are some things I’ve learned.

• For many folks, little league sports functions as an equivalent of a church. They are sincerely committed and see it as a positive part of raising their children. But I have a church and sports is just a game. So I shouldn’t be surprised at how much commitment on the part of parents and families is assumed by the leagues. I need to bring wisdom to how much time and money commitment my family makes, and help my little leaguer have his or her expectations of involvement set by the family and not by the team.

• I’ve talked with my son about his role in being a witness for Christ on the team. All of my instruction to him about obeying the coach, playing hard but fair, guarding his tongue and ears, being an encourager, watching his attitude, etc are directed first at his opportunity to be a witness. While there are leadership and sportsmanship values to be learned, they are secondary to remembering who he represents on the field.

• Having established a wise balance of commitment and helped my son prepare for his role, I want to invest myself as fully as possible. This is the greatest evangelism opportunity I may get all year. I try to be at every practice I can, and help out any way I can. If it means dragging the field, umpiring, lining the base paths, coaching first base – I make it my goal to serve my child’s coach in any way he can use me. This gives me an opportunity for servant outreach and, in addition, let’s me be part of my son’s experience beyond just rooting him on.

• As a family we have an evangelistic focus to little league. My son has his role – to be an example and befriend his teammates, particularly the ‘uncool’ ones. I have the job of getting to know the dads and developing conversational relationships that can lead to witnessing opportunities. When Jill can be there she is engaging moms. It all works together. As my son handles himself in a godly way on the team, dads notice, which opens up doors for me. And as I engage dads, moms take notice and that opens up doors for Jill.

• Often our chicken barbecue outreach invitations come out right before the end of the season. So we have something of a goal to be in position to invite folks to that outreach through building relationships.

Last Spring we were away for several weeks during the season, which made it more difficult to develop relationships. But two years ago I had the chance to share at various times with the dads on the team and was able to spend an hour and a half sharing the Gospel with one dad when we took some of the boys to a minor league game.

If you have kids in league sports this spring, pray that God will give you a strategy for Gospel impact with the time you invest.