My Sports Idolatry

I am guilty of making an idol out of relationships. I certainly know what it is to turn from God to serve myself, and to place my worth almost wholly in another person. That I know what it means to make an idol out of a relationship with a person is clear. Recently, another idolatry has become increasingly apparent to me and my worship of this idol carries with it some important implications for how I view relationships as well. Sports is the idol to which I am referring. I have been completely immersed in sports from a very young age. While my father never forced me to play any sports, I was certainly enamored with football, basketball, and baseball as a child. Over the years I participated in these sports until I grew to focus on baseball.

I was cut from the "A" team in Pony League two years in a row during my junior high years. With J.V. baseball tryouts approaching the following year I realized that my baseball career could soon be over if I did not become significantly better between my 8th and 9th grade school years. The fear of not playing baseball again drove me to great lengths to prepare myself and to better my abilities on the diamond. All fall and winter of my 9th grade year I followed a routine. Everyday after school I would work out in the weight room from 3:30 until 5:00. Then, my dad would pick me up from school and we would go to the baseball field and practice until it was too dark. A few times a week I skipped baseball practice and went to a lot behind my dads friends house to chop trees down with an axe. I did this to make my swing harder. To make a long story shorter, I was very prepared when JV tryouts rolled around and I clearly outhustled most of the other guys trying out and I easily made the team. While other guys were out there joking around, I was so focused I didnt even want to speak. Looking back I know I took it too seriously. I shutter to wonder what I would have done had I been cut that season.

Anyways, this love of sport has been a huge theme in my life, and a very real passion in my heart. As I grew older this passion intersected with view of relationships. I really wanted a girl to be athletic. And part of the reason for me wanting this was so that we might someday produce athletic offspring!! I know it sounds kind of silly, but it is true. Sports have come to mean so much to me that I still naturally think of women in relation to what kind of "breeding stock" they are (as though we are trying to raise thoroughbreds or something). I woudl think, "Oh she might make a good centerfielder", or, "she might make a good linebacker"....haha...ohh man. Im sure most girls would not want me thinking they might make a good linebacker, but you get the point.

I know that this idolatry runs through much of my thinking, and inherently, I am hoping to pass it on to my children. I am only now beginning to rethink my love of sports while seeking to place it in its rightful place. I wonder what kind of idolatries other people have in play when considering a mate. I wonder what kind of idolatries girls consider. Im sure that musicians, artists, scholars, writers, actors, politicians, bankers, military people, racists, northerners, southerners, and all sorts of demographics have different idolatries that play into their relationships much like sports have for me.