God and Sports: The Only way to Win in Sports

GOD AND SPORTS:  THE ONLY WAY TO WIN IN SPORTS

The image you see became a very popular one over the 2011-12 NFL Season.  It has become known as "Tebowing".  How to dissect this knew fad really is a tough one because it has seem to become a popular thing to do in the view of the world.  As a Christian I root for Tebow because he is representing the Kingdom of God in the NFL, which is a big trademark sport in the worldly world.  By Tebow's example and success he may bring many people to the Kingdom of God.  However hearing the term "Tebowing" has become about a pop culture icon and not a sincere effort to bring praise to God by the way many of the people in the world view and use it.  So with everything going with "Tebow Mania", this has brought up a topic that I have connected...God and Sports.  I am going to go over how it has become in the eyes of the world and how it should be viewed in the eyes of the Kingdom.

I was playing basketball at the YMCA this past winter and on another basket were these groups of Middle School boys playing.  What I noticed is every two minutes these boys would stop the game and all get on one knee and go in a praying motion.  Everytime they would do this they would say "Stop, time to do some 'tebowing' ".  So I got the hint right there that they were not sincerely praying to God but just performing what they thought was a pop culture thing.  As a true God-Fearing Christian this kind of troubled me.  Look I'm not saying I go around and judge others because I let my example talk the Kingdom of God for my part in it.  However, when this situation occurs along with watching a Broncos game last season at a restaurant and when Tebow started to pray someone yelled "He's 'tebowing' ", then it becomes clear to me that the world sees this as a gimmick.  I really do not think they are reading into the true message of Tebow living his Faith and that is to show the true love of the Kingdom of God through his example.  This misidentification of what Jesus Christ true reasoning for his message started back in his day.  PALM SUNDAY... Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a Donkey with the people fanning palm branches at him in a sign of worship and adoration (John 12:12-19; Luke 19:28-44; Mark 11:1-11; Matthew 21:1-11).  There were a lot of those people at that Palm Sunday parade for Jesus that saw him as a worldly superstar such as what many see their favorite pro athlete.  Jesus himself knew this which is why many times he warned his disciples not to tell anyone after he was transfigured (Matthew 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36) because for one they would not understand the true meaning of it and instead make Jesus into a Pop Culture hero.  How many times did Jesus heal someone and change their heart and warned them not to tell ANYONE about it?  Now yes part of that was due to knowing the cold hearts of the Pharisees attacking him wrongly but much of it was due to people wanting to make this into that day's version of "TMZ news:  Jesus uses super powers to heal a man".  So as you can see even when Jesus was walking the earth in his mission days that people didn't get his true message but saw it as the "cool" thing to do.

Now you may ask how does this relate to Tebow?  Well Tim Tebow is a TRUE God-Fearing Christian.  The man has gone into prisons and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to these people and many truly turned to God and repented.  Tebow prays without ceasing, he will sing hymns to the Lord while on the sidelines in the middle of the games.  This is to bring Glory to God and its between God and Tebow.  However by his example he brings a calming influence over the team he is on and a great example for others to see and live by.  Watching Tim Tebow's press conference today that introduced him as a New York Jet he said that he lives his Faith and that example is the best way to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Its the media that has however turned this into a "look at him now he is praying.  Lets market this and label it as his thing".  THAT is so FAR from the truth media...Tebow is bringing praise to God and using his athletic gifts as a way to do it.  God gave him the gift and Tebow prayed on it, worshipped Christ without ceasing, succeeded, and uses it as the opportunity to bring glory to God.  This "tebowing" thing is something the media made into a popular fad and Tebow himself recognized that today at his press conference...shaking his head saying that he does not know where that came from and that many other athletes have prayed during competition before.  True Christian Athletes know the real battle is Spiritual and they use sports as a stage to worship God and present the example of a God-Fearing athlete and person.

One of my favorite NBA players of all time, David Robinson, is seen not only as a 7 foot giant but a Spiritual giant all thanks to the glory of God.  Robinson was saved back in 1990 and from there on out uses the basketball court as a platform to bring Glory to Christ.  Thankfully Robinson never got mispercieved as Tebow did as many saw him as the gentle giant, the quiet example.  However, Robinson did get a lot of criticism from within the NBA fraternity.  It is mentioned that during the 1992 Dream Team moments that one time Robinson and his teammates were out golfing and constant foul language from Charles Barkley forced Robinson to walk away from him and go to another hole.  It should be noted that "The Admiral" was a Superstar Center in an era where the NBA was at its peak for Centers.  This included Hakeem Olajuwon's peak years in the league and in the 1995 Western Conference Finals the Rockets beat the Spurs in a series that showed Hakeem dominating the 1995 NBA MVP David Robinson.  It also didn't help that Robinson's prime came when Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen built a six Championship dynasty in Chicago but I guess every other superstar would be seen left in Airness and his Robin's dust as well.  So the media finally decided to pick on Robinson and use his Faith as a center point of that.  They labeled him soft, to friendly, and not having the courage to win it all due to him wanting to be a "Bible thumper" instead.  Being injured for the 1996-97 season may have been the final straw the attack him with in the eyes of the media bashing him.

    

Years of collecting Division Titles and no NBA Finals appearances could have tempted "The Admiral" to lose his cool, point fingers, or talk back to the media big shots.  Instead he grew even stronger in his Faith and Prayed more and asked for God's Spirit.  As God does give his Spirit without limit (John 3:34).  Finally the Lord brought a solution yet sacrificing situation to him in 1997.  The Spurs drafted another Superstar big man in Tim Duncan and now many thought this was pushing Robinson out the door.  An athlete with a huge ego could have demanded a trade or stirred up trouble int he locker room.  Robinson saw it as a way to give up his main superstar status on the Spurs in order to win his First ring.  Just as Jesus gave up his life so we could be free from sin forever, Robinson used that example and gave up some fame to help him and the Spurs finally win it all.  In 1999 the Spurs defeated the New York Knicks 4-1 and Robinson finally hoisted up the golden NBA Title trophy.

So as you can see Sports is not seen as "is it okay for one to proclaim their religion during it".  It is more like Sports is another platform that God uses some of his select people to worship him, glorify him, and bring glory to his name.  God also uses this through Music, Movies, TV shows, and other venues.  Unfortunately the popular day media brings its lies into the fold and turns it into what it is not.  I myself use my Fitness gifts to worship God.  Yes Ive been blessed to perform Pushups and God gave me the vision to work at it hard enough to the point where I could do 1,000 or more Pushups inside of 60 consecutive minutes.  I've put on displays of that at various plateaus.  I will say Bible verses and praises to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ during my workouts and thank him for Saving me through his Death and Resurrection.  Last year in L.A. I completed a Perfect Pushups Season (2010-11) by doing 1,100 Pushups from 1:20 PM PT - 2:20 PM PT on Friday, April 1, 2011 on the L.A. Beach of Manhattan Beach, CA.  Yes what I do isn't as media popular as what Tebow and Robinson do which I am kind of glad because to media can;t turn it into what IT wants to turn it into.  I am thankful, like many other athletes, to use the physical gift to glorify God.  As I close, just look at my victory poise from last year on Manhattan Beach and see my eyes are fixed on Heaven praising God.

 

http://jzpushups.blogspot.com/

David Robinson's Testimony

Tim Tebow's Testimony (Video)

Tim Tebow Prison Sermon

Deion Sanders Testimony video on YouTube (other parts are available to right of video)

True Dreams and Visions of Jesus Christ saving people

Fellowship of Christian Athletes

Famous Christians