ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, NBC Sports Network, CBS Network, NFL Ticket, the Golf Channel.... the list goes on. We are obviously a nation of sports crazed fans and what intrigues me most about it all is the passion with which many follow and participate. The word "fan" originates in the Modern Latin "fanaticus", meaning "insanely but divinely inspired”. Undeterred by exorbitant salaries in the professional ranks or the marketing of amateur athletics, our emotions rise and fall on the performances of our favorite teams and individual athletes, and I number myself among the addicts. Just today I enjoyed what for me was a rare treat, that of watching live on television the closing round of the British Open. I had followed the first three days of the championship on my smart phone, but the timing of our return from vacation stranded me at home on Sunday, a glorious predicament indeed for a preacher. Admittedly the drama wasn't as intense as in 1986, when the Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus, who hadn't had a tour victory since 1984, shot a record 30 on the back nine of the final round to pass Greg Norman, Tom Kite, Nick Price, Tom Watson, and Seve Ballesteros and, at age 46, won his sixth green Master's jacket by one stroke. But I was still on the edge of the couch urging Rory McIlroy to hold onto his lead, and audibly cheered when he won by two strokes. I was so energized that later in the day I went to hit balls at the driving range.
What is it about athletic contests that hold our interest, command our wallets, and inspire on so many levels? Sports psychologists suggest that the cause is the hormone epinephrine, commonly known as adrenaline. They purport that when we get extremely excited over a sporting event, it causes our bodies to release epinephrine, increasing our heart rate, causing excitement, and triggering our "fight-or-flight" instinct. I believe there is a much more significant cause. Inherent in every person is the God-placed longing to experience ultimate victory. We act this out unconsciously, but down deep each of us knows that we were created to overcome. "No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us" (Romans 8:37, New Living Translation). Victory is ours, present tense, but the fullest expression of it is still future, and it is in this interim that we look for athletic ways to foreshadow our future.
"But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere."
(2 Corinthians 2:14, ESV)
"For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory."
(Deuteronomy 20:4, ESV)
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