King's Court - What Sports Can Teach You About God

By Michael Wadie

Can playing sports teach me anything about God? ... A LOT!

I believe that metaphors and stories can transfer much more meaning from speaker to listener than can a rational discussion or set of instructions. The world is full of metaphors and many of them can come from playing and training for sports. 

Throughout my personal walk with the Lord, He has and still is personally teaching me a lot about His ways through playing sports competitively and recreationally.

 

This is what I want to share you with you in this short book, to help you realize that you already have the desire and discipline to follow Jesus.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Authors Hub
• Release date: Mar 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224270835

Book preview

Introduction

I have always found it much easier to learn something new when I can relate it to something I already know. May the analogies I use, connecting spiritual life with sports, bring you as much insight as it did for me. I use basketball as my reference, but you could get the same illustrations from any other sport.

These concepts and principles are what I have learned thus far in my journey seeking the Lord. Most of them have been taught to me by various wise, God-fearing men and women. I thank them immensely. A special thank you is needed for my parents and brother, who have always shown tremendous love, patience and support, and whose prayers have sustained me throughout my life.

Chapter 1

Slave or son?

Who doesn’t love to have fun? Whether you’re in school or at work, I bet you often find yourself thinking about what you’re going to do as soon as you leave—going to the gym, seeing your friends, going out to a new restaurant, playing your favourite sport, and the list goes on. I remember watching the clock in high school as it moved slower than a turtle; I was always daydreaming about getting home so I could skateboard or play basketball. My mom will confirm that all the way until I graduated high school, every morning was a battle just to get me out of bed for school. But if I had to wake up early to play in a basketball tournament, I would shoot out of bed like a cannon way earlier than my alarm.

Here’s another example: how would you feel if you were asked to go on a 6 hour drive to visit your dad’s second cousin’s family that you’ve never seen in your life compared to driving 6 hours to watch the super bowl or game 7 of the NBA finals? I think we know which one would make you think, 6 HOURS?! That’s way too far, and which one would make you think, which jersey should I wear? See how the 6 hour drive went from seeming like torture to barely being an issue? My point is that when you are doing something you love, the barriers don’t seem big at all. But when you’re only doing something because you have to, you count the seconds until it’s done or you try to get out of it.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, we’ve all thought of church and spiritual life as the 6 hour drive to see a distant relative. We try to get out of it if we can, and if we can’t, we’re gritting our teeth just to get through it. Have you ever asked yourself why this Christian thing has to be so hard and boring? Maybe that discourages you from trying, or maybe you try to grow spiritually but feel like nothing is changing so you give up; maybe you constantly cycle through periods of being close to God and then fading away. Or maybe you flat out hate going to church and hate reading your Bible. If the Christian parts of your life are only there because you are being told they’re important (either by family, friends, or a guilty conscience), then I totally do not blame you for not caring about it—you just do them because you have to.

If you feel like your spiritual life has been a series of attempts at trying to grow as a Christian, getting better for a bit, then falling off the wagon, this is the book for you. If you’re just going through the motions of life and putting Jesus on the back burner because you think He’s too serious and you want to have fun with your spare time, this is also your book. If you’re worried about the future and keep being told to be close to God and everything will be fine, but have no idea what that means… Guess what? This book is for you.

I’m going to do my best to compare your spiritual journey to playing and training for your favourite sport, and my prayer is that by the end of the book you realize that things are much simpler than they seem. I encourage you to pray as well directly to the Holy Spirit to help work inside you (you really need Him on your team). The analogies and examples I give work best in the context of team sports, but you can still apply most concepts to any other hobby or skill that you enjoy.

WHY DO YOU PLAY?

Imagine a group of 6 year olds sitting cross-legged on the floor, with a teacher at the front of the room. On the whiteboard, imagine reading the heading Why Basketball Is The Most Fun and beneath that on the left, a drawing of a basketball and hoop. On the right, a list of the basic rules about dribbling the ball, how many steps you can take before you have to dribble, and so on.

"So you see kids, the ball is really bouncy and fun… and if you shoot it from really far you get 3 points not just 2… and then when you’re older and can jump really high, you’ll be able to dunk! And then you’ll learn cool things like—Timmy, are you paying attention? Come on guys, I promise it’s really fun, trust me; just start memorizing these rules first."

I hope this silly scene already gives you an idea of what this chapter is about. How many of you started playing a sport because someone sold it really well to you? Obviously, the answer is none of you. So why do you play? I bet the reason sounds like this: as a kid, you picked up a basketball and thought it was the coolest thing ever to bounce it. Or you had a mini net that you would try to