Adult League Devotions / Week 5

Week 5:
Who Are You?

By Rich Green, Sports Minister at Mount Pleasant Christian Church (Greenwood, Indiana) and adapted from devotional writings from Stuart Weir. 

The story is told of Einstein who was travelling on a train one day and lost his train ticket. The ticket collector told him not to worry as he knew who Einstein was. Einstein continued searching and replied agitated, "I know who I am but I don't know where I am going" As sportspeople it is important to know who we are and where we are going! 

Who are we? Our identity as Christians comes from the fact that God has created us in his own image and that through Christ he has redeemed us. Genesis 2:25 states that Adam and Eve "were both naked and they felt no shame". When they sinned (Genesis 3), they realized that they were naked, and sewed leaves together to cover themselves. They were ashamed of who they were. In our fallen world, people often seek their identity in another facet of creation - work, achievement or sports - because they are often ashamed of who they are. 

If we take this knowledge of who we are into the world of sports, it will help us deal with the pressure of the performance based culture. Of course, we want to do well.We play to win. The amazing thing is that understanding who we are can help us enjoy winning all the more because we don't expect from victory more than it is able to give. If we seek in victory our significance as people, we will be disappointed - not to mention how crushing defeat becomes. If we know who we are, with Rudyard Kipling we can "meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same". 

"The need to succeed to be happy is a one-way ticket to depression." 

Discussion Questions

1. What are your thoughts on what you’ve just Read/Heard? 
   
2. How can we best partner - The Will To Win”, The Spirit Of Competition”, and “Who We Are As A Person” with our participation in spots? 
   
3. What’s the “Take-A-Way” for tonight? 
   

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