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Photo: Enigma sports

"God answers my prayers everywhere except on the golf-course."

Billy Graham

Follow me

Jesus said [to Simon and Andrew] “Come follow me and I will send you out to fish for people Mark 1:17

The disciples are called into a relationship with Jesus. They are not asked to sign up for a cause. The essence of our Christian life is to be in relationship with Jesus. Secondly this relationship is to their priority and everything else is to be secondary. The relationship with Jesus has an ultimate purpose – to share the good news with others.

How does this verse apply to us as sportspeople in the 21st century. We need to be in relationship with Jesus, every moment of the day. It is our identity. It is who we are. Have you ever notices how sportspeople introduce themselves – I am a footballer, I am runner, I am a cyclist. When two runners meet they relate to each other - they talk distance, races, training, shoes etc.

We too can identify ourselves as runners or cyclists but deeper we are followers of Jesus. It is that relationship which defines us and gives us our value and significance as people. Jesus wants us to be involved in the world of sport but to remember that we are there to represent him.

I love the way the old Leeds United chaplain, John Jackson put it: “I don’t go into the football club to take Jesus. He is already there. I just go in case he needs an errand boy”.

The next verse says “At once they left their nets and followed him” (Verse 18)

Headings shamelessly pinched from Alistair Campbell

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