The Game of Life

Well, good morning, friends. This is Dick Both. And I have just a little bit of melancholy this morning. As I record this, I am recording this on the morning after. I was a boy in Oakland, California in the 1950s. I grew up when there were no baseball giants, there were no Oakland athletics. There were only minor league baseball teams. The Oakland Oaks and San Francisco seals. The Oakland Raiders had not been invented in the 1950s. Just one team, the 49ers, the San Francisco 49ers across the bay. Part of me wants to sing the first verse of, I left my heart in San Francisco, but last night was the biggest single sports event in the United States this year. I think most folks would say that. Watched by tens of millions of people here and around the world. And this morning on one of the sports broadcasts, the final hour of the game was called the best in the history of the Super Bowl. This is Dick Both with stories from the road. Well enough of my whining about my team losing the Super Bowl last night. You know, life goes on, doesn't it? Just just as a fun thing. Let me tell you the 10 top sports in the world. Many of you might know this, but I just want to toss this out because sports, as we will see in just a couple of minutes, is such a strong metaphor in the New Testament, for example, for biblical ideas or themes. But here are the top 10 sports in the world. Soccer, of course, half of the planet, almost, or at least three and a half billion people watch soccer over 250 million people admit to actively playing soccer. It's the most watched, most played sport on the planet. There's one continent where soccer doesn't reign supreme, North America. By the way, did you know that soccer originated in China in the second century? Second most played sport, this kind of freaked me out. It's cricket, two and a half billion people. Maybe mostly with British accents, I'm not sure, this watch or play cricket. The first recorded cricket game was played in 1646. Third one is basketball, 2.4 billion people. Watch basketball. It's a relatively new sport, compared to the others, started in the late 19th century. Until 1926, basketball was played with a soccer ball. Then there's hockey. This surprised me. 2.2 billion people are fans of hockey. Of course, you have two versions. You've got ice hockey and field hockey, and field hockey has played a lot overseas in, again, the British, Asia and all of that. According to the rulebook, this is fun. If two goalies are injured during the game, anyone is allowed to play the goalie position, including fans. I find that fascinating. Number five is tennis, total fans of billion people. It's the first on this list that isn't played with a team. The biggest tennis event, of course, is Wimbledon in London. I don't know what this means. It requires over 24 tons of Kent strawberries to be served. There you go. That's the one I want to go to. Six is volleyball. 900 million people are fans of volleyball. Most of its popularity stems from its Olympic status. It's one of the most watched events in the Olympics. The average volleyball player jumps over 300 times a game. Number seven, table tennis, 850 million people, and the main draws that anyone can play it. You don't need great athleticism. In the 1970s, and Ping Pong has played a ton in China. Ping Pong was a diplomatic tool. I don't know how all that works between the US and China. Number eight is baseball. Number of fans, 500 million. In the past, baseball was the most watch sport in America. A title that since given to football and may soon pass on to basketball. Baseball is also incredibly popular as many of you know in Japan. But you didn't know this, I bet you. Fans consume over 25,500,000 hot dogs a year at baseball games. Finally, we get to football. Total fans, 410 million American football fan base to revenue ratio. However, as someone has written, is insane. It's huge money in football. You could sense that last night watching the game. Well, you didn't know probably as it takes 600 cows to make one season's worth of footballs for the NFL. Please don't call me about being in your main animals. I'm just telling you what it says. And finally, there's rugby. Total fans, 400 million people, both rugby and American football are originated from soccer. And the first rugby balls were made out of pigbladders. You say, I thought this was supposed to be a series podcast you get. Well, it is a series podcast, but I think we have to have a little perspective some time on this idea of sport and we'll come back to it. Sports language, I would maintain, is a metaphor for life. Think about how we talk. You say that team has a deep bench or somebody has been benched, sat down. That person spiked it, spiked the ball. When somebody's injured, it's next person up. Our lives we talk about moving the ball down the field. And life by any measure is a contest. Sometimes it's a fight or a battle. Sometimes it's a battle for ideas. Other times it's a battle for territory. Oftentimes it's a battle for life. But sports is a language that is spoken by people around the world. I'm not prolific in languages. I know some English that I work at butchering now again. I know a little bit of German, a tiny bit of Spanish, just enough to find the train station or whatever. But I could say I'm bilingual. I speak English and I speak sport. Some folks would say, well, we're trilingual. I speak English and I speak sport and I speak music because sports and music will take you around the world. But for sure, it was a familiar subject to Roman citizens in the first century. If we're talking about New Testament times, there's a professor in Dallas, Texas by the name of Stephen Lawson. They just tossed out some thoughts and I just hitchhike on those. Athletes were the iconic figures of the ancient world. They were the heroes of young boys, the craze of culture. And so New Testament writers use sporting events to depict important truths related to our lives in Jesus and our growth in him. Just a few observations from Stephen. First was strict training. Only those physically fit will win. If you watched the ballgame last night, you're saying, here are on the front line the big bodies. These guys knocking people down, holding people out. And then you have the young sleek, sort of leopard-like white receivers. And you've got the quarterbacks who are calling or executing the plays that are called and so forth. Here is Paul writing to a younger fellow Timothy, first Timothy 47, saying, train yourself for godliness. Well, training back in that day means you strip down naked to your skivvies as we would say, at least here. And the ancient gym is that place where they strip down so that nothing impeded them. They removed all hindrances. When we think about training, we think about, and these are three things that Steve Lawson says, being diligent in the scriptures, disciplined in prayer, in the conversations with God, and strengthened by worshiping, by heart of worship. Second, steadfast obedience, compete according to the rules. Paul writes it this way, again, to Timothy, an athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. Last night, you saw penalties because the rules were broken. That happens in every sport, in every game. And part of what that is is obedience to the rules and a fracturing of that obedience. Third thing is self-control. Athletes required to exercise mastery over his body during his training. If he's to win, he has to limit his freedoms. That's an interesting thought. He has to limit his freedoms. Paul writes every athlete exercises self-control in all things. That's first Corinthians 9. Self-control means self-restraint and governing yourself. Fourth thing is strenuous effort. The wreath belongs to the one who expends every ounce of energy in his competition. Paul says we must toil to Timothy if we will win the prize. And labor, that word that's used means to toil to the point of exhaustion. The one thing the San Francisco 49ers did not want to do last night was to give the ball to Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City quarterback, with less than two minutes left because he is a him. Some would call it a freak of nature. He is unique to himself and his capacity to get the ball down the field. Coming back to toiling to the point of exhaustion, Bible says, let us run with endurance the race that is set before. So I'm talking about a hundred meters sprint. This race was an excruciating, long distance event that involved agony and agonizing. I was a runner back in my 40s and 50s, not a competitive runner, but I ran numbers of miles a day and to think about running a marathon, 26 plus miles, it is just mind boggling to me. But life is like that. It's a marathon and sometimes it's agonizing. Fifth thing is strategic aim. An ancient boxer couldn't afford to wear himself out by throwing wild punches. And Paul says, this way, in first Corinthians 9 again, I do not box as one beating the air, not shadow boxing, not some vague thing. But I discipline my body, keep it under control, less after preaching to others. I myself should be disqualified. And finally, the sixth thing is singular focus. Every athlete has to remain riveted on the goal must maintain an intense concentration on the prize. Looking elsewhere, getting distracted, slow you down and lead to defeat. Well, we have another season. There will be another year. And I just leave this with you in your own life. Whatever your favorite sportsman before, if you have one, pursue the goal, pursue your goal and keep this in your head. If you will hear the Apostle Paul saying, I press toward the goal for the prize of the high calling in Jesus. Thanks for listening. That's it for today. Next time it comes back to you, probably, I'm just guessing we might talk about love because this is Valentine's week. God bless the catchulator. Pick both signing up stories on the road.