"Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."
The answer
For as in Adam all die, so in Jesus Christ all will be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22)
Last week we saw the implications of sin in the world and particularly in the world of sport. Sin destroys everything. It ruins our relationships, our sexuality, our sporting life, our friendships - sin breaks everything.
The good news is that Jesus loved us so much that he died for us. Earlier this year I had the privilege of interviewing Catherine Ndereba. She put it like this: "Jesus died because of my sins, because He loves me so much and He wouldn't want me to die or have eternal destruction so that is why he offered to die on the cross on my behalf, so that I may live with him".
Just as sin affected everything negatively, so the death of Christ affects everything positively. If we believe that Jesus Christ died to restore our broken relationship with God, then that has implications for the whole of our lives. And that must include how we play sport.
Remember too that the world of sport is part of God's creation. Just as God told Adam to work in the garden of Eden and and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15), we are to serve
God is by using our talents to be at work in shaping his world for him. If our sporting talents are a gift from God, then it follows that we are to use them to work for God's pleasure as we take care of that part of the world called sport.
Stuart Weir