Cheer for Your Salvation

(Illustration/Dave Hulteen Jr.)

Watching sports can be an enjoyable pastime. Sometimes it even crosses into obsession. But what if it impedes on your spiritual life?

“Tell me what occupies your mind, and I will tell you who your God is.” —Pastor Paul Washer

I grew up in the hoops-crazy state of Indiana, and let’s just say I love basketball. I mean, I love basketball. I’ll stop and watch people shooting around in my local park.

High school, college, NBA, WNBA, Biddy ball for kids, it doesn’t matter. If there’s a basketball game, amateur or professional, I’m watching. I’ll be locked in soon with the beginning of the March Madness college tournament for both men and women.

From an early age, I fell in love with the NBA’s Boston Celtics, probably too much. One college girlfriend suggested I marry the Celtics instead of her when I brought a transistor radio on a date (I married neither). Hey, it was the playoffs!

Yes, at several points in my life, sports were an idol, to put it mildly. I went into the news business to be a sportswriter but my editors urged me to be a news reporter. While covering news, I always kept one eye on the sports side and my immature antics are part of our family’s lore.

Then I got married and had kids and my wife often helped put things in perspective, but I would tend to revert to old habits during the playoffs or when my favorite teams did well. The 2024 season was a most satisfying one for me as the Celtics won their 18th NBA championship, my seventh as a die-hard fan.

I attended the championship parade in Boston with my oldest son and grandson. A crowd estimated at a million people partied and danced and screamed as the floats went by, especially the one featuring the golden championship trophy. The revelers cheered for standouts Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown like they were rock stars. I was as thrilled as anyone (maybe more), but I began to get convicted that I was reverting to old habits.

The author (center) waits for the parade to celebrate the Boston Celtics’ NBA championship in June 2024, with his oldest son, Robert (left), and his 2-year-old grandson, also named Robert (right), who brought the basketball hoping for an autograph.  (Photos/Courtesy of Robert Mitchell)

An important question

As we were stuck in traffic leaving Boston and I watched the merrymaking in the streets, I turned to my son and said, “Can you imagine if people were this happy about their salvation? Why aren’t people this happy about eternal life and what Christ has done for us?”

He smiled because we talk about that subject all the time. Sports are supposed to be a pastime, and it can be a healthy one, whether you’re a player or a spectator. Sports teach discipline, teamwork, leadership, hard work, commitment, and so many other important life lessons. Watching so much baseball, for example, made me a better coach.

In the same vein, watching sports is also a healthy alternative to the often carnal options on television and streaming services.

But when does it become too much? When does it become an idol? And why are we more euphoric when our teams win than we are about having eternal life in Heaven if we’re in Christ?

The Bible is replete with stories and verses about the dangers of creating idols in our lives. One of the Ten Commandments says, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:14, says, “Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.” The Apostle John, in 1 John 5:21 (KJV), warns, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

French theologian and pastor John Calvin called the heart “an idol factory.” Tim Keller, the late pastor and longtime friend of The Salvation Army, put it this way: “The true God of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention.”

Is it Christ and what He did for me on the Cross? Often, no.

An eye-opening interview

I noticed that sometimes after church, my friends and I would talk about sports instead of the state of our spiritual lives. I was convicted by the words of Pastor A.W. Tozer, who said, “Whatever is closest to your heart is what you talk about, and if God is close to your heart, you will talk about Him.”

Another convicting moment came a few years ago when I had the pleasure of interviewing baseball great Darryl Strawberry. We’re the same age, and I closely followed his career when he played for my beloved New York Mets and I was one of his biggest fans. We swapped some baseball stories during our time together, but I sensed he wasn’t all that interested in reliving the past. Once one of the top players in baseball, he said he rarely watches the games now.

“That old baseball player? He’s dead. I don’t even like baseball anymore,” Strawberry told me as I sat next to him in stunned silence.

“Baseball is nothing. Heaven and earth are going to pass away, but not God’s Word. When you die, people will talk about you for a week and then they’ll stop talking about you.”

—Darryl Strawberry

The man known simply as “Straw” to a generation of fans once played before tens of thousands of people every night. Today, he can be found preaching before much smaller crowds at churches around the country. Oh, he still shows up for baseball reunions here and there, but his life is now about preaching the gospel because, he said, “God has restored me” from a troubled past off the field.

The man who once wowed me with his baseball talent wowed me this time with his new life’s priorities, which also should have been mine.

“Baseball is nothing,” Strawberry said. “Heaven and earth are going to pass away, but not God’s Word. When you die, people will talk about you for a week and then they’ll stop talking about you. I think about the lives I’ve had a chance to impact more than I ever did in baseball.

“I had everything, but I had nothing until I met Jesus Christ. If we never deal with what’s important in life, we’ll miss it. I came close to missing what was important. It’s Jesus Himself—the man who hung on a cross and shed His blood that we might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Making big changes

Strawberry later preached to a small group of people and warned that “we’ve gotten consumed with earthly things rather than Kingdom things.” He implored people to get their priorities right. Baseball is a game. It’s an earthly thing.

“Kingdom things are better than earthly things because Kingdom things are eternal,” he said. “Earthly things are going to pass. Heaven and earth will pass away, but not His Word.”

I had some serious soul-searching to do. I’ve sometimes spent several hours a day watching sporting events, including basketball, baseball, football, and hockey. While the games are usually entertaining, I often feel convicted that I could better use that time studying my Bible, preparing Sunday school lessons, praying for my pastor, or running errands for the shut-ins at my church. The games I’m watching are typically forgotten with the next news cycle.

The Holy Spirit began to convict me enough that I will sometimes abandon my original plans and crack open my Bible or retreat to my prayer closet.

In 2024, I took things a step further after reading a social media post from Pastor Dustin Benge, who noted that the average movie is two hours long. Reading at an average pace, he noted that you could read through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, James, 1 and 2 Peter, the Apostle John’s three short epistles, and Jude during the time it takes to watch one movie on Netflix.

I shared this with some folks from my church, and we decided to act. We started a ministry called “Bible Talk,” where we meet in homes on Friday nights for two hours and take turns reading a chapter of Scripture out loud. That’s all we do from 7 to 9 p.m. There is a brief introduction of the book we’re reading, but no exposition or commentary. It’s just God-breathed Scripture.

Last fall, we offered Bible Talk as a morning Sunday school class geared for new believers, but anyone is welcome to join.

We also still meet on Friday nights, and you might say I’m growing. I’ve even attended meetings of Bible Talk on nights the Celtics are playing.

I even show up during the playoffs, and without a radio. (Thank God for the ability to record!)