Church
league sports can crack me up. I love the idea of them. Get together have some
fun, play some sports and enjoy some Christian fellowship. For my experience,
this is not the case the majority of the time. (My personal opinion) I have
seen better sportsmanship in my Beer League Hockey Leagues then I ever have in
a church league sporting event. Now before you start throwing stones at me, I
believe the majority of people have great intentions with Church league sports,
but the minority ruin the experience. Still the one saving grace is prayer. At
the beginning there is usually prayer before the game starts. I love this
aspect. Usually the prayer includes showing a Christ like attitude, good
sportsmanship, keep us from getting hurt and other Christian standard prayer.
In the
years of doing church league sports, the prayer doesn’t really vary a ton. The
translation of the prayer: God we are about to treat each other really
horrible, please give us grace when we cuss at the ref/ump for using their
judgment that we disagree with. Please let Jesus shine through us because I am
not going to be a nice person for the game Amen. So when a real matter came up
to be prayed over, I didn’t think much of it.
Before
one game about seven or so years ago, I was talking with Todd Hein. Todd is
awesome and I really didn’t know much about him at the time. He was a great
ump, funny and tried to make sure everyone had a good time. Todd made church
league sports fun. I think Todd was umping the game that day and after the
prayer as we went our separate ways to the dugout, I mention to Todd that one
of my students was going to a significant medical procedure and to keep them in
your prayers. Todd said great, why wait, let’s pray. It through me off a little
bit, the game was about to start people were heading to the field. Todd didn’t
care we stopped right there and prayed for my student. After that prayer he
said he would be praying about it with the other teams/games the rest of the
night. What a cool thing, I don’t even know if Todd remembers this, but I had a
lot of respect for Todd since then (I had respect for him before but I had even
more now). I believe in the power of prayer and Paul share about prayer in
Colossians 4:2…
“Devote
yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
Prayer
is powerful to a Christian. A line about prayer I liked stated “Prayer is not a
spiritual luxury but it is essential for growth.” As we live our lives, a
Christians prayer is an important part of our lives not an afterthought. I have
had to correct myself from my early walk in faith. I used to say the great line
you will be in my prayers or I will pray for that. Sometimes I would remember
sometimes I wouldn’t. Just like Todd showed how to stop at that moment and
pray, I have changed to do this. When people ask for prayer whether in person
or online, I will try to stop at that moment and pray. Rather then writing will
pray, I will write just prayed.
Prayer
is a conversation with God. There are times when I am quiet and just try to
listen and other times I will vent at God about what’s going on in my life. If
there is one person you can talk to about anything, it’s God.
Where
are you with your prayer life? Is it essential or an afterthought? I thank
people like Todd who reminded me about dropping everything to pray and I try to
do this more and more. Even at a church league sports event we can stop and
have meaningful prayer. How do you need to respond in regards to prayer? How
can you improve your prayer life?
Have a
great day.
