By Brad Locke
March 19, 2004

(AgapePress) - Welcome to the freak show.

Tonya Harding made her professional hockey debut Friday, March 12, with a minor league team. The figure skating diva-turned-publicity hound has, as far as I know, no hockey experience (or skill, aside from skating), which is rather surprising, really, given her feisty nature. But I guess she's learned that severe beatings are less painful when one wears full-body padding.

What she hasn't learned, however, is that her athletic skills do not extend into these other sporting realms. But she's not alone in that regard. Sports (and I use the word in a singular sense, meaning not sports separate, but sports as a whole) has become the newest ring under the American circus tent.

Sports has long been an escape for many from the drudgeries of routine and reality, providing thrilling moments of inspirational human achievement. Sports can also bring out the worst in us -- see the case of Todd Bertuzzi, who's the subject of a criminal investigation after breaking the neck of Colorado's Steve Moore with a sucker punch during an NHL game March 8. Either way, sports honestly reflects our societal values, be it the archetypal concept of the American dream (see the Florida Marlins), or the pervasiveness of extreme individualism and greed (see the NBA), or the raw violence we so lust after (see football). America at play is both therapeutic and instructive.

Now it's becoming vapid. Empty. Meaningless. It's just more blithe "entertainment," thanks mainly to the exploits of Harding and other mockers. Sports is the latest frontier in our voyeuristic culture, its virgin soil being trampled, tilled and left to the eroding elements of excess.

Boxing is a sport already struggling to retain its credibility, and the advent of made-for-TV celebrity boxing -- not to mention women's boxing, which touts semi-talented fighters like Laila Ali and Harding -- only further weakens its place in the sporting landscape.

Another segment of sporting society, the media, is also succumbing to this trend. ESPN's Dream Job is a tedious reality show on which people compete for a one-year contract to be a SportsCenter host.

ESPN also brought us Beg, Borrow & Deal, on which a group of young people basically bum their way across the country by completing athletic or other sports-related tasks. And late at night on ESPN2 I've caught episodes of Streetball, which follows a barnstorming team of basketball players who openly mock the parameters of the game under the thin guise of "creativity," thus showing us why these Allen Iverson wanna-bes will never make the big time. Sure, they're entertaining, but apparently so is an overweight buffoon ripping a family apart over bogus nuptials.

It's one thing to have amateurs masquerading as professionals, it's quite another when professionals behave amateurishly. Take former heavyweight champ George Foreman, who at 55 years of age is threatening to lumber into the ring yet again. He's made no pretense about recapturing a title belt this time; it's all about money and the moment. Foreman has said he would take a few million to fight an also-ran. Here is a man unable to release his past, unable to break his addiction to fame. And boxing suffers.

A few more sad examples. Joe Ruttman, a 61-year-old grandfather, earned over $50,000 for running just one lap in the Subway 400 last month. He was a "field-filler," paid to start the race and nothing more because not enough drivers showed up to qualifying. NASCAR, admirably, is taking a second look at that practice.

Minnie Minoso, at 80 years old, batted in a minor league game last season just so he could be the first to play pro ball in seven different decades. Hockey great Gordie Howe pulled a similar stunt a few years ago. Such self-serving acts only degrade the sport and insult those who truly belong at the elite levels.

Is there any spiritual application to this madness? Maybe it's like what the late, great Lewis Grizzard wrote about a farmer who "felt called to preach." After the impromptu sermon was delivered, Grizzard's grandfather said it was the worst preaching he'd ever heard.

We need to know our limits. Just because something looks fun doesn't mean we should try it, at least not more than once.

Forgive me if I'm stretching the metaphor a bit, but we all have certain gifts to bring before God and to serve Him with, and we should discover those gifts and focus on them. For me to try to stand up and preach, I assure you, would be disastrous. In Acts 11:29, it tells of the disciples helping their Judean brethren, "each according to his ability."

Certainly, God can overcome our inherent inadequacies and perform amazing works through us. But He's wired each of us a certain way, and we should not try to re-wire ourselves. Accept who you are and where you are, and you'll be much happier. Harding, Foreman and the rest of them should learn that.