All this week, our devotional illustrations have been playing catch-up, corresponding to historical events I ignored in order to share some of our Alaskan adventure with you. Well, today is going to do BOTH.
While on the Anthem of the Seas, there are many things to keep a person busy while sailing. Besides all the eating, show, and shopping, we played table tennis. We met a man and his mom who was in her upper 70s to lower 80s and played cornhole with them several times. And we learned how to play Pickleball, taking advantage of several days of open play.
For those unfamiliar with the game, Pickleball is a paddle sport that combines tennis, badminton, and table tennis in one. If you have never played or witnessed a game of Pickleball, “think Wiffle ball meets Ping Pong meets Tennis. But don’t let that description confuse you. The ball used is similar to a Wiffle ball, while the racket used is similar to a short tennis racket only solid like a ping pong paddle rather than webbed. Play happens on a court similar to that of a tennis court.”1
I had the hardest time with the scoring and keeping in mind the rotation for serving. When you serve, you are to announce the score. 5-4-1. The last number is the serving position. Each person on one side gets to serve before play is turned over to the other side.
The actual play wasn’t that hard. You just had to remember that the ball must bounce once on each side before you can dink it or slam it. And you can’t serve in the kitchen. What does the kitchen have to do with Pickleball? You’ll have to look that one up.
“Pickleball has been around since 1965 and originates on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Friends Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum were thinking of a way to keep their families entertained in the summer. After combining elements of badminton and table tennis, the trio created some equipment and made up a few rules. Interestingly, the hardest thing about the game was finding a name for it. Legend says Joel’s dog Pickles made a habit of chasing after the balls and hiding them. One thing led to another, and the game became known as Pickleball. We’re not sure how true this is, but it’s a cute story to share.”2
August 8th was National Pickleball Day. What does Pickleball have to do with the Bible? Specifically, nothing. Generally, quite a lot.
Through the years, Christianity has taken diverse attitudes towards athletics. “In the first few centuries of the church, Christians were largely against the sports of the day, albeit for understandable reasons. The early Olympic games were dedicated to pagan gods like Zeus and Nike and athletes usually competed in the nude. Moreover, the most popular sporting event—the gladiator games—involved throwing Christians into the ring with wild bears and lions.
“Broadly speaking, throughout history the church has had an overall negative or dismissive view of sports—the devil’s workshop at worst and a secular means to an evangelistic end at best. John Calvin played a bit of bocce ball, Dietrich Bonhoeffer a little tennis, but in the early years of America the serious-minded Puritans put sports almost completely outside of God’s will.”3
Some today act as if sports are the Mark of the Beast. Oh, those evil sports like baseball, basketball, football, and soccer! However, the Bible gives multiple accounts of athletics and athleticism while in the New Testament, sports becomes a frequent metaphor.
Archery. 1 Samuel 20:20-22 says, “And I will shoot three arrows on the side thereof, as though I shot at a mark. (21) And, behold, I will send a lad, saying, Go, find out the arrows. If I expressly say unto the lad, Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee, take them; then come thou: for there is peace to thee, and no hurt; as the LORD liveth. (22) But if I say thus unto the young man, Behold, the arrows are beyond thee; go thy way: for the LORD hath sent thee away.”
Running. 1 Corinthians 9:24 asks, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” Hebrews 12:1 gives another familiar verse. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
Boxing. 1 Corinthians 9:26 gives this illustration. “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight (literally, to box) I, not as one that beateth the air.”
Wrestling. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
If sports are so evil and wicked, why does God so frequently refer to them, using them as positive examples for spiritual activities?
To become a proficient archer, boxer, runner, boxer, or wrestler, you have to practice. For kids – or adults – to be involved in sports is not a sinful thing. But like all things, it must be put in proper perspective.
1 Timothy 4:8 says, “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” “Exercise” is the Greek word from which we derive gymnasium. The Bible doesn’t say that hitting the gym isn’t profitable. It says that it profits little in comparison to the profit of having a Godly life. It’s a verse about priorities and priorities doesn’t mean that you get everything in order, establish the #1 spot, then discard everything below the #1 spot and only do that. Setting priorities means getting the right thing in the #1 spot and then everything
else is to fall in line behind.
Rather than getting our back up about a sport, why not embrace the lessons taught by sports and the fact that God has given these things as just another way through which He can receive glory? And, isn’t that the bottom line to everything we do in our Christian life?
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)
1https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-pickleball-day-august-8
2Ibid.
3https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/more-than-a-game-theology-of-sport/
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