Sport is not our saviour

If I could eliminate one thing from the lives of church-going teenagers today, it would be sports. This might come as a surprise to people, since I love sports and am incredibly competitive. There is almost nothing that can’t be turned into a competition when I’m in the room. Still, sports have become a problem—a big problem.

I’ve worked as a youth pastor for seven years, and nothing bothers me as much as sports. Not porn, not drug use, not violent video games. Good, well-intentioned sports. I think the reason behind my frustration is right there in those words: “well-intentioned.” We know that porn isn’t healthy, that drugs aren’t healthy, and that violent video games are not the best use of our time, but we’re pouring energy into sport like it’s our saviour.

When it comes to the clearly destructive things, we acknowledge that they’re damaging. We don’t do the same thing with sports. Often, it seems we think they are the best thing to happen in our lives.

To me, sports represent the modern busyness that takes over our lives. Some are busy with music, art, volunteerism, work or all types of things. But work can be rescheduled, whereas sports schedules are rigid and inflexible. You miss a practice, they bench you for the game . . . unless you’re the superstar. So I could blame everything that makes us busy, but I’m focusing on sports because it’s the cause of busyness that I hear about most frequently.

Sports will not save your life. Sports will not save your soul. Sports will not form lifelong community. Sports will not give you a future income, not for the majority of us anyway. It may get you a university scholarship, but is that worth the time missed on being a teenager, the family evenings that have gone by, the damaged joints and muscles that may never recover? It’s incredible how many teenagers and young adults already feel like their bodies are breaking down.

I recently heard a young adult who played competitive sports in high school say, “I wish someone had told me sports didn’t matter so much.” So I’m telling you: they don’t matter so much. Sure, they’re fun. I loved playing sports in high school, but the irony is that the majority of people who performed at the higher levels in high school dive-bombed once they were out of high school, and certainly out of university.

With their four-a-week practice schedule gone, they gained weight, got lazy and spent more time talking about the good old days and trying to reinvent them through senior sports. When I see them now, they no longer look like the jocks they were. Some of them have taken on bellies; for others, it’s been a more full-body change.

You know who still look fit and healthy? The ones who were intrinsically motivated. The ones who ran on their own time, that went to the gym when no one was looking, the ones who didn’t need a team to make them exercise.

This is all to say that the sports that “save” us in high school don’t last. This is all still in the realm of the physical. But I work in a church, where we talk about, and deal with, more than the physical.

I believe busyness is killing our faith. Not just diminishing, but outright killing. My wife Jeanette and I communicate a lot in our marriage. We both love to talk. When we don’t have time to communicate because our lives are too busy, the little conversation we can have is nowhere near as good as what we’re used to. Things get mis-said and misinterpreted. We’re more likely to snap at each other, more likely to hurt each other. Our relationship suffers.

If we only give God the dregs of our time, our relationship with God suffers in the same way.

So take a step back, cut down your busyness, and reconnect with God and the people around you. For adults, that might mean work, volunteer efforts, hobbies: good things that are overrunning our lives. For youth, it’s often sports.

Sport is not our saviour. I’m an athlete, crazily competitive, and good at a decent number of sports, and I’m willing to say that. So back off. Don’t say yes to drugs, but don’t say yes to every practice and game that comes your way, either.

Paul Loewen, 27, is youth pastor of Douglas Mennonite Church in Winnipeg. His latest book is When Quitting is Not an Option: My Road to Cycling, a Guinness World Record and Making a Difference, co-written with his father, ultra-marathon cyclist Arvid Loewen. Paul and his wife Jeanette are expecting their third child this summer. Visit www.paulloewen.com.

--Posted May 21, 2014