Ever since the Chicago Cubs finally broke the world series
Ever since early on in my time at the Vineyard, I also on occasion experienced what I felt was God nudging me to spend less time in sports, and more time with Him. One one occasion, I'd had two posters hanging prominently on a wall at home, one of Patrick Kane, and one of Jonathan Toews, which I'd bought right after the Chicago Blackhawks had won their first Stanley Cup championship in decades. At a certain point, I felt God say to take those down and replace them with Scripture. The point was that what I put up on the wall reflected what I worshiped. And the truth at that point in time was, I had been going through a really rough season, in part because I had wandered away from Him. The sense I got -- to get through, I needed to turn back to Him, and if putting up a Scripture verse in place of the two posters was what I needed to do, then that's what I would do. So I did.
When the Cubs won, I was nervous about purchasing paraphernalia. I ended up purchasing a few things, nothing too big. It was after some prayer and reflection, and realizing that them winning a world series was nothing short of a miracle, including how they won. So I felt ok about buying the things I did, because I knew deep down that these things were evidence of the kinds of miracles God can bring about that, honestly, I had completely given up on. I had gotten to the point with the Cubs that I believed it was impossible that they could ever win. But then they did. That's a miracle.
As I grew in my faith once again, and found peace in the sports part of the world, I began to let go emotionally in a lot of ways. Gone was my moral outrage at LeBron James' decision to sign with the Miami Heat (and specifically how it happened). Arrived was my respect toward this man, not merely from a fan perspective, but from a kinship perspective, in the business sense. After all, James is an entertainer, just like me, even if our specific skill sets are quite different. (I hope to get to meet him someday.)
But I also became more staunch in my belief that sports was idolatry, a summation of the aforementioned experiences I've had. I recognize that is a part of our culture. However, a conflict that I had recently with someone who chose to watch a game over going to a social event that a mutual friend was having brought this to mind. What got me was that this person expressed dissatisfaction that our mutual friend scheduled this social event too close to the start of the game, causing this person to skip the event in favor of the game. My perspective was that this person had a choice, and was now complaining that our mutual friend's choice disrespected my first friend's choice. This person expressed "this game is important to me." That led to my (unspoken, until now) question of idolatry.
Is sports idolatry? In my opinion, yes. Just like reality TV, TV shows, movies, music, etc. After all, sports is entertainment, a diversion at best, and I am concerned that many people in our country (myself included) worship our sports teams of choice too much. And that that's all it is.
That is, until today.
Retired NBA player Kobe Bryant died this morning in a helicopter crash, along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, a potential rising basketball star. I was in shock when a friend of mine told me the news over lunch. I didn't believe it. I had to check out ESPN's website and see if it hit the news. It had. In the few hours since, I've seen tweets come in from others around the sporting world, video tributes, and it became clear that this was beyond sports. Even as I write this, I'm mourning, although I never saw Bryant play, let alone meet him in person. I'm mourning the death of someone that clearly made an impact on my life, even though he was only an athlete, an entertainer, a person that one might idolize (and I believe many have idolized!). And I mourn each time I check the news to hear who else has chimed in: Shaquille O'neal... Michael Jordan... Dwyane Wade... among countless others...
Thus my question: could being a sports fan be more than idolatry?
For my part, when I was addicted to video games over a 10-year period from about age 13 to 23, I primarily gravitated toward the Nintendo NBA cartridge titled "Kobe Bryant Courtside 2" and religiously played it over and over. Was it idolatry? Yes. However, my tears for Bryant are real, along with the tears of millions of others. He wasn't just an athlete that was easy to idolize. He was a human being who happened to be incredibly gifted and had an excellent work ethic, in both careers, basketball and film-making. And he impacted so many people.
In a group text chain, I texted my prayer that Kobe and Gianna Bryant find/found their way to Jesus, along with the other seven people aboard the helicopter. I'm still praying. Perhaps there is true legitimacy to sports' meaningfulness in our lives, and perhaps it's ok to really, really like your preferred team or your preferred athlete, to where it's important enough to ask someone who isn't a sports fan to consider rescheduling their event so you can watch your game and go to the event. And perhaps it took Bryant's sudden death for me to see that.
A question for you readers: what is something meaningful that you can take and learn from today's tragedy?