The Draw of Sports

Thursday, March 13

I have always heard how sports are a good way to do cross cultural and cross language missions, but I had never really seen it in action until this trip.

What I mean by see it in action is how just going out and kicking a ball around can draw a crowd of about 12 kids in 5 minutes who are a receptive audience to the witness of Jesus Christ.

Sports are one of the few things that transcends all cultures, languages and people groups and it is simply amazing to see how each different culture, though seemingly irreconciable, can be brought together by kicking or throwing a ball.

The use of sports as a missions tool was very prevalent on this trip in that we would routinely look for opportunities to pull out our Evange-Ball soccer balls or a baseball and bat and engage these kids and show them our love for the Gospel through our love of sports.

And that is one thing about the Gospel that makes it so powerful - if you have a passion for a particular activity, you can find a way to mesh the Gospel into that activity to better share with others.

Say you have a passion for scrapbooking (I for one don't, but there are those out there who do). Through a passion for scrapbooking a person can build relationships with other scrapbookers and show them the Gospel through the way in which they lead their life.

I say all this to make this point - we shouldn't view the Gospel as a part of our life that we have to fit in with everything else. We should view the Gospel as an avenue through which our passions are fed, which allows us to better engage the people around us with the beauty and joy of the Gospel.

I will be the first to admit it, I have at times not lived my life in such a way that puts the Gospel before all else, but I know that through the acknowledgment of this shortcoming, I can learn to work on it in the future.