If I had to choose between my wife and my putter... well, I’d miss her.
The Assist
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Brian Smith, Houston, Lucid Books, 2017 ISBN 10-1-63296-181-4
The book describes its purpose as: “This is a book written from a biblical perspective aimed at helping athletes glorify God in every facet of their sports”. While it contains good stuff, overall I was disappointed with it.
The section on losing as a Christian was excellent. I will use his loser’s prayer. I totally endorsed his view that Philippians 4:13 (I can do all things through Christ) is constantly misused by athletes.
The book starts with a critique of the practice of giving glory to God in post-match interviews with added comments: “When a Christian athlete wins, people expect him or her to give some of the credit to God” and “The church and Christian culture do a fairly good job letting athletes know that sport is an opportunity to glorify God”. I’m sure this is very pertinent for a US audience but I don’t believe any of it really applies in the UK. Thus much of the content of the book is not relevant to the UK.
The book also lacks any real theological content on the intrinsic value of sport. Indeed the statement: “I believe one of the primary reasons God cares about our sports is that they can be leveraged as a vehicle through which we can express our love to him (thus glorifying him)” may suggest that the author sees sport as mainly (only?) of extrinsic value in God’s economy. As I firmly believe that sport is part of God’s creation and a gift to be enjoyed for its own sake and in its own right, I am not comfortable with this aspect of Smith’s approach.
Further evidence which suggest that the author believes in the extrinsic view of sport include repeated use of the term “leveraging” sport as well referring to sport as “a vehicle” several times.
The author quotes Martin Luther: “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes but making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship”. A great quote but the book does reflect that attitude to sport. It does not deal with how to play as a Christian but rather concentrates on the platform an athlete has, for example when the author writes: “Christian athletes and fans generally love the concept of the athletic platform. We love the idea that God has put certain individuals in the spotlight and those people can use their spotlight to talk about Christ”.
The author gives some helpful advice as to how an athlete should be intentional about witness to team-mates – a section with applications well beyond sport. At the same time one is left wondering if the author believes that witnessing to a team-mate in words is more important than performing Christianly on the field.
I felt uncomfortable with his theology of injury (my phrase) when he writes:
“Why would God allow you to get injured? Here are a few possible reasons.
• He is preparing you for something in the future.
• He wants you to deal with something in the present.
• He wants to use you to reach someone…
Athlete, God may have you injured at this particular moment because it forces you to spend time with someone who desperately needs to hear about the love he freely offers through Christ”.
Isn’t being injured just part of sport and indeed part of human life? Of course God can use any situation for his purposes but I don’t think it is helpful to think in terms of God causing injuries.
The book is a welcome addition to the Christian literature on sport but is of limited value to the UK reader.