A Lesson Learned?

"I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishment.  The front page has nothing but man's failures."    Earl Warren 

The reality of my life is that most of my life's greatest lessons have been learned or sharpened in the sporting arena.  Sports offers us a wonderful opportunity to see our weaknesses and push ourselves to excellence.  Team sports can help us understand more about serving in a church than most any other experience.  Individual sports teach us about determination, sacrifice and endurance.

 

We have become a nation enthralled with watching sports.  We would be much better served to play sports than watch them.  We would have much less obesity, depression and illness if we would spend one half of the football game we plan to watch exercising, then watch the second half.  Of course, most Americans are addicted to entertainment, so I doubt this will happen any time soon.  The lessons we would learn if we would only participate rather than just watch sports are life lessons which prove invaluable.

Unfortunately, this obsession also affects the examples we have in life.  Too many people want to imitate the athletes in how they dress, talk and walk.  Charles Barkley put this into perspective when he said:  "These are my new shoes.  They're good shoes.  They won't make you rich like me, they won't make you rebound like me, they definitely won't make you handsome like me.  They'll only make you have shoes like me.  That's it."  What a wonderful reality check as Michael Jordan just unveiled his latest shoe line, which costs $250.  There will be people in America who MUST have these new shoes and will dish out that kind of money for a pair of shoes.  Whatever happened to PF Flyers which promised to make us run faster and jump higher for only $10?

 

I've learned many lessons playing sports and continue to learn them as I continue to play sports.  One of the game changing lessons I learned came from my Dad and involved the sport of tennis.  For those who don't know me, I have just a bit of a temper.  As a teenager, I was playing tennis when angry players like Ilie Nastase, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe were at their zenith.  So the natural thing for me to do was express my anger on the court like they did.  Now, my Dad was not really known for being quiet or docile and was rather passionate himself.  He and I would play each other in tennis, just banging away at each other with my Dad usually dusting me.  I knew I had finally improved when one Saturday, he invited me to play doubles with his usual crew.  As a cocky teenager, I thought, "I'm going to show these old men how to play."  Well, older players may not have the strength, but they have the wisdom and guile which comes from experience.  So they were wearing me out and I was getting frustrated and voicing my frustration.  To me, I was just doing what I normally did on the court, but my Dad was having none of it.  After the first set, he pulled me aside and told me that if I didn't watch my temper, there would be a huge price to pay when we got home.  Of course, that only stoked my fire.  Though I kept quiet for the rest of the matches, I was fuming when we got into the car to leave.  Before my Dad started the car, he looked at me and said, "If this is the way you are going to play tennis, I suggest that you quit.  You embarrassed me in front of my friends.  Your lack of composure will do you in one day unless you get it under control."  That became a turning point for me as I began to see how my temper was not only affecting me, but those close to me.  I still have a long way to go, but I thank God for a loving, Godly father who was willing to point out my flaws, speaking hard truths to me.

Proverbs 14:17 - "A quick tempered man does foolish things."

Proverbs 14:29 - "A patient man has great understanding, but a quick tempered man displays folly."

Proverbs 19:19 - "A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty; if you rescue him, you will have to do it again."

I share that lesson to remind you that we each have lessons we need to learn in life.  As you run your race, what lessons are you learning?  If you need a few new ones, get on the court, ball field or gridiron and let God speak into your life.  then put those lessons into practice.