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In the Sportsfield…
‘Ye are the salt of the earth…Matt 5:13
One of the amazing teachings of our dear Lord as the above-captioned scripture portion
bears out is that, we are not to go to any snow-clad mountain-tops to enjoy His presence
alone but having ‘tasted’ His redemptive love, we are very much required to be part of this world,
trying to influence it for Him by virtue of our lives.
What about Sports? Can we pursue it as a profession, participate in it,
view it in TV or read about it? These questions may surface in the minds of some new believers.
This World comprises of different fields for us to
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seek our means of livelihood. Don’t we see Christian school teachers (oh, how I had been blessed by many of them!),
Christian doctors (should one need to recount the immortal works of Dr.Livingstone in Africa,
to drive home a point?) so why not Christian Sportsmen? Just because, Sports may not by itself
in terms of its utility, qualify to be put in the same plane as education or medicine, does
it make it a ‘prohibited area’ for us? NO WAY! For one thing, it is not SIN, for apostle Paul,
makes positive allusions to it, even while comparing his Christian life to a race
(I Cor 9:24-27).
There is also a interesting, insightful tradition, which tells the tale of that great apostle John playing with
some children in a house before a prayer meeting, when a certain Church elder
with bow and arrows returned from a hunting trip. The Church elder,
the tale continues, not being pleased one bit, on the apostle (apparently)
frivolously spending away his time playing with children, spoke his mind out in no uncertain terms,
to which the relaxed apostle on seeing the untied string of the bow in the Elder’s shoulder,
is said to have asked him ‘Why did you untie the bow string’? for which the reply was ‘ I had to,
otherwise the string will lose its resilience’. Then came the punchline
to the entire conversation from the wise apostle… ‘Oh, Brother, by playing,
I too am untying the string of my mind, so that I can use it effectively to shoot ‘Divine truths’ later’.
No prizes, for guessing that this wise answer brooked no reply from the humbled elder!
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Now this leads to a question, ‘oh in the days gone by, pure sport devoid of all its fanciful strappings,
was so pristine, now it is a billion dollar industry, where money rules’, so should Christians
be part of it? More than anything else, it is the attitude, we carry to our workplace, which is important!
Even in ‘noble’ pursuits like education or medicine, we can end-up making money ‘our God’ and flounder.
Being talented, if playing Sports endows us with a decent means of livelihood, so why not, as long as we
do not land up making money ‘our God’.
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Assuming now a talented soul takes to sports, much like a brainy whiz kid pursues a career in IT Industry,
the next logical question would be that to be competitive, in this, we need to ‘sweat buckets’,
otherwise our finely-tuned opponents in the Sports arena, ‘will walk all over us’, so is all the
physical training, exercising which is so time-consuming worthwhile? Leave alone Sports,
if we need to excel in any other secular profession, should we not need to ‘sweat buckets’ there also … rising time
and again to meet the lofty expectations of our customers (within or without), working across time
zones making our natural ‘body clock’ go haywire, keeping ourselves updated with the latest developments
pertaining to our field…be it competitor activities in a dynamic environment or new Government rules
influencing our business etc.. all these and more… also entail ‘sweating buckets’. Right? Once,
we have decided to pursue a career, its prudent to accept the fact right at the beginning, that
there are no short cuts to success. That’s aptitude for you!
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Wherever we are, be it in a secular profession like IT Industry or Sportsfield,
it pays to remember that, we ought to be the Salt’ of the world, which means playing the game
‘fair’. No cheating, no taking of undue advantage of anyone. Heard of a self-professed
Christian tennis player M.Chang, ever being hauled-up for unsporting behaviour? Doesn’t it sum it up?
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Oh, yes, when a choice has to be made between pursuing Sports and pleasing God
(a rare situation like the one Eric Liddel the Champion Olympic Sprinter faced in
1924 Olympics of going either to a Church service on a Sunday or taking part in his ‘pet’
event scheduled on the ‘Sabbath day’), then as always pleasing God should take pre-eminence in our lives.
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What about viewing Sports in TV or reading Sports magazines? I prefer the latter,
as in a quick span of time I get to see the ‘action replay’ of exhiliharating sporting
action in my mind’s eye. No wonder, my favorite magazine is Sportstar (an Indian Sports weekly)!
Is TV Viewing or reading about Sports a waste of time? Remember the tête-à-tête between the
apostle John and the prejudiced Church elder? If an activity, is contributing to wholesome
entertainment and subsequent much-needed relaxation in your life, then please go for it. After walking, with my Holy Creator for 23
long years, I can affirm that God’s seal of approval would be there on it.
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Also, from personal experience, I can vouchsafe for the fact that
in my efforts to toe apostle Paul’s line of being ‘all things to all men to share the gospel’
(I Cor 9:22),
I have found Sports to be ‘that common ground’ where I can immediately ‘connect’
to others and develop a rapport. All these, brings us back to what was said at the beginning of the essay
‘Flee not selfishly to the snow-clad Himalayas to enjoy God alone….
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Suresh Manoharan
The list of essays to follow
- Honouring the National flag
- Don't tax the tax man
- Employer satisfaction nay... delight
- Capital Punishment
- Environmental issues
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