By Brad Locke
December 5, 2003

(AgapePress) - It may reasonably be asked of me how I could write a column each week that ties together sports and spirituality. What could those two possibly have in common?

Sure, there are many topics in sports about which I can wax theologically: the Kobe case, Warren Sapp's big mouth, the NCAA's hypocrisy. But most of these affairs occur off the field of play and pertain to decisions made away from the noisy crowds. I contend, however, that there is much that happens in the arena from which we can draw spiritual applications.

There are innumerable sports metaphors that relate directly to everyday living, usually dealing with the pursuit of lofty goals. Sports terminology is pervasive in our everyday language: "Don't fumble this opportunity," "We're gonna play hardball with these guys," "Nice assist on that sale." It's a dialect especially familiar to the males among us. It aids us in that laborious task of communication.

So, to me, these metaphors can naturally extend beyond routine, worldly life and into the spiritual realm. There is precedent, and a guide, for such analogous rumination.

Just look in the Bible.

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it." As I Corinthians 9:24 illustrates, most sports metaphors in the Bible invoke running, as football, baseball and NASCAR had tragically not yet been conceived. But I'm sure we can still relate to such comparisons. We all have run some kind of race over the course of our lives, even if it was just trying to beat a sibling to the bathroom.

Many of us (read: people besides me) run for fun and/or fitness and can probably more closely identify with Paul's words to the Corinthians. I have taken up jogging periodically, and one time I even kept it up for several weeks. Actually, it was probably more like five days, but it sure seemed like weeks.

One thing I do know is that running long distances requires, of both the body and mind, great endurance: "... let us run with endurance the race that is set before us ..." the unknown author wrote in Hebrews 12:1. That race being, of course, the earthly journey that begins at the time of our salvation and ends at heaven's gates.

If you've been a Christian for very long, you know how quickly you can become spiritually exhausted. The trials and temptations and opposition Christians face daily take their toll on the heart and the mind. Paul understood this, which is why he compared our walk in Christ as a race not only to be run, but won.

And winning requires endurance. Runners obtain endurance by training and exercising, but most of all by just running. A person who has never run a marathon cannot simply jump off the couch and expect their feet to carry them 26.2 miles. They'll come up about 26 miles short.

Likewise, a Christian with a stagnant faith will not be able to endure hard times and tests of their faith, but will instead collapse in a gasping heap. Spiritual fitness is more than a quaint term. It's a vital part of running strongly for Christ: "Every athlete exercises self-control in all things" (I Corinthians 9:25a).

We train for the marathon God has set before us by running a little bit every day -- by studying His Word faithfully and asking for the strength necessary to overcome the obstacles standing between us and the finish line.

Of course, being a Christian is more than enduring the race. We must embrace it, we must "press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phillipians 3:14). I have heard those who run marathons say that doing so brings them a joy that far exceeds the pain running entails. Part of that joy comes from the actual physical exertion, and part from the rewarding feeling (and rewards) of finishing a race: "They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air" (I Corinthians 9:25b-26). We run with an ultimate purpose in mind.

How glorious the knowledge that we will be rewarded someday for our faithfulness, our endurance, our belief that there will come a day when we can say, as Paul, facing execution, said in his final letter to Timothy, chapter 4, verse 7: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."