A World Race Sports Addict

I was a Sports addict.  Are you?  Do you always think about the latest stats of your team and maybe how to improve Your game?  Is your entire day/week/mood determined by how you or your favorite team performs?  Don’t just briefly think about it and dismiss it, go deep into your thoughts of your reasoning behind it All.  Maybe it’s not sports…but something else like fashion, friends, I don’t know.

I was born and raised in the South where most of the community is somehow involved in sports, and I never really thought how difficult it would be to leave all my favorite sports behind.  I did realize I was “Sacrificing” it in a way to go on this trip, but I didn’t realize how much attachment I have to it.  Not being able to watch hardly ANY of my favorite sports me was tough.  Not joking.  For you considering the Race and Love sports, it’s a huge sacrifice. 

Entire Countries Go Crazy over their sports teams.  Their LIFE Revolves around how their team does. So Many people Are addicted to sports.  Why?!?! Because it’s SO Easy
to consume our lives with improving and competing in something such as a
game.  It’s tangible for us to see our improvements, success, and
failures.   We can SEE it and control it with our own hands (if we’re Playing the game). Just sitting back and thinking about How Angry and Abusive
we can become based solely on how Our Team Does is ridiculous.  People
take it too far…I have.

Being on the World Race has definitely brought a different perspective of sports in my life.  I realize that “It’s Just a Game” even more.  How simple of a fact that is, yet my ingrained mentality of winning and competitiveness has Such a hard time of letting things go.  I don’t get as “riled up” as I used to be about certain sports.  Yes I’m still competitive and it’s still a work in progress, but I’ve come a Long way.

I sat and watched my University football team on the other side of the world get utterly destroyed in a playoff game.  Yet, no overwhelming anger came out of me.  Weird.  What changed?  I’ve gotten to play Cricket, Frisbee, Ping Pong, Basketball, Futbol, Volleyball, Football, and several other sports while on the trip.  Holding a tree branch hitting pine cones brought a feeling of how much I missed baseball.  Playing tennis this month for the first time in Over a Year brought so much joy to me.  I feel sports is one of the passions God’s placed in me to implement somehow someway to Love this World.

As I look back from where I was in college till now of my views on sports, it has changed radically.  I still follow my favorite teams when I get the chance just to see how good…or bad they’re doing.  It will still be tough to lose games I play, but hey it’s OK.  I don’t want to Rob God of my attention and focus of Him from sports.  He HATES it when we don’t give Him our Full selves, and compare Him with things of this world.  I’m Not saying that sports is a BAD thing, but you’ve got to be careful in how much of it consumes your Life.  Also, sports can be used as a ministry tool to reach so many people of this World, which I’m going to pursue…but that’s still in the “works”.

Go Braves 🙂