"God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast and when I run, I feel his pleasure."
An Audience of One
"My motivation is to live my life in a way that pleases God. So when I play in a stadium and there are 80,000 spectators, I still think, there is actually only one that I would like to please. His name is Jesus". Dirk Heinen, German goalkeeper Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. Genesis 1:26The tension between Christian values and sports values is summed up in the cliché "You are only as good as your last game". Players get their identity from playing, being part of the team and performing in a way that the coach and the spectators will think well of them. Thus the player at the top of their game can easily become arrogant and base their self-worth on their good performances. The problem is that the player who kicks the rugby team to victory one week can miss the vital kicks the next week and lose the game. And what does that do to the player's self-worth? If your self-worth is based on what people think of your performance, life will be a roller coaster.
Of course, the Christian player is inevitably caught up in this to some extent. We care how our performance pleases others. We suffer the same highs and lows as the rest of the team. But, the Bible teaches us that there is a better approach.
What really matters in sport is not the public assessment of our performance but that we are responsible for pleasing God first and everyone else last! It is to please the God who gave us our lives, made us in his image to rule on his behalf and under his authority and who knows our motivations when we play. We are to play for an audience of one.
Ask what God thinks of the way you have played today before you wonder what others think of your performance.