21 Questions at the Intersection of Faith and Sport

Occasionally I get the opportunity to answer people’s questions about my book, The Christian Athlete, and other things surrounding the intersection of faith and sport. Yesterday, I met with a college class that is working through the book as part of their required reading and, over the span of 90 minutes, the class asked 21 questions. You can read through my transcribed responses below.

1) Brian, in your chapter “On Teammates,” you discuss ways in which one can create a healthy relationship with their teammates and then provide words of wisdom for the one who is struggling with a topic. Would you be willing to expand on the idea of ways in which we can love difficult teammates? 

I believe I said that when you have a difficult teammate, ways that you can still glorify God through that situation involve praying for them, praying for yourself, finding ways to encourage them, forgiving them, and finding accountability from someone else to basically make sure you’re trying to implement these ideas. 

I’ll give you one more practical idea that I probably should have made the book and it may be the key to some breakthroughs in these tough situations. There is a story behind why some people are difficult and annoying. And when you begin to learn their story, you learn things like “Oh, this person is always trying to be the center of attention because they were the only child and don’t know how to operate any other way” Or, “This person is consistently being a jerk but I know they come from a broken home and haven’t experienced consistent love and stability of two parents like some others.” So what happens as we learn people’s story is we begin to view them through their life experiences instead of just the tangible things that annoy us or frustrate us about them. And this usually (at least it should) moves us towards compassion instead of annoyance.

So the action step here is finding ways to learn more about their backstory. Which takes intentionally.

2) If you have been coaching an athlete who has dealt with injuries for a long time, have they ever considered quitting because they have felt like they lost their sense of purpose for being in the sport? How would you best encourage them to stay in that sport and to focus on Christ and their teammates rather than their struggles? 

Yeah that’s always a really hard reality for athletes. Because we all want to play right? In all of our dreams as kids, we are the ones with the ball in our hands with the game tied and 5 seconds left on the clock. No kid dreams of being on the sidelines, injured, while their teammates compete. So yeah, this is a hard reality. I would encourage a Christian athlete exactly the way you asked the question…to focus on Christ and their teammates, maybe not more than their struggles, because the struggle is part of where God has them at the moment, but to focus on the teammates in the midst of the struggle. Here is what I would add, and I am not sure if this would really sink in right away but I have experienced it to be true. I would encourage them that in 5, 10, 15 years, what they will hold on to from their college experience is not only what happened in sport, they’ll hold onto the relationships. I’m 20 years removed from running collegiately, I can still remember most of my races, but I value the relationships with my former teammates more than the results of any race. We chase championships, and that’s not bad, but so often it’s the community we’re with that carries the weight of the joy we experience in sport. 

3) What is the number one way an athlete can use their platform in sports to share the gospel?

Let’s start with what a platform is…it just means people are watching you and willing to listen to what you have to say. For the Christian athlete, you build a platform through having actions that align with a Biblical worldview and people begin to notice. But the number one thing you need to do to use that platform is to actually use words to share the Gospel. People need to hear that God loves them, our sin separates us from him, Jesus lived the perfect life and died in our place so our sins could be forgiven and reconcile us back to a loving God, and this good news demands a response for us to either believe it or deny it. People can’t understand that message just by our actions. We need to say it. 

4) In chapter 10 focusing on gray areas in sports, you stated that God blesses our obedience one way or another. However, I struggle to understand the concept of God rewarding us for obeying him because it makes me think about legalism and works-based faith. How does our obedience to God resulting in blessings from him differ from performing works and then expecting him to bless us? 

Yeah, a couple things here. One, I think Bible is pretty clear that we will be rewarded in the next life based on our obedience in this life. To be clear, our obedience is not what gets us to heaven, that’s  works-based righteousness. Our trust in Jesus and his finished work on the cross for the forgiveness of sins reconciles us to God. But, again, the Bible is clear that we will be rewarded in some way based on how we live and that we should pursue those heavenly rewards. So that’s the first thing, living for heavenly rewards over earthly rewards. Secondly, we may need to rethink our understanding of blessing and expand it to include a few different categories. For example, if we choose integrity over shady actions in sport, one of the blessings we may, and should experience, is the freedom of conscience that comes from knowing we do what is right. This freedom is a blessing. Blessings from God can’t always be measured in terms of tangible athletic prosperity. 

5) What do you think about the idea that God maybe rewards people who are faithful to him with a win?

Honestly, I think it’s just that, an idea. And it’s one that I think lots of Christian athletes wish were true. Because if it is, then we can, in a sense, manipulate God to reward us with athletic prosperity. I just don’t think we can look at anything in the Bible, which is where our understanding of God comes from, and make a strong case that God will reward us on the playing field for our obedience off of it. Again, it goes back to the previous question. I really do believe God will bless us or reward us for our faithfulness. But I think it’s a dangerous path to put our faith into the idea that his rewards will coincide with wins and personal best performances. He may do that, but I don’t see anything in the Bible that would indicate that’s his normal mode of operation.

6) In Chapter 13 you mentioned impacting the younger guys on your team by going out of the way to speak life into them. How do you balance speaking life into them while using your platform to coach them up on the court/field which sometimes can be a little more aggressive? 

Good question. I think doing the former actually positions you best to do the later. What I mean by that is when you coach up your younger teammates, even if your tone is a little more intense or aggressive, you are showing that you see them, care about their impact on the team and their personal athletic growth, and identify yourself as someone willing to help them out. As long as you’re not being a jerk in the process, this actually paves the way for you to speak into other areas of your life too. Sport conversations and encouragement can pave the way for spiritual conversations. 

7) In your book you mention a lot of great advice for how to approach certain areas as a Christian athlete, like how to glorify God, how to handle winning and losing, and how to overcome the mental setback of injuries. How do you handle teammates, coaches, or other peers who do not easily accept these teachings? If you find someone who is not accepting of what you’re trying to share, what advice or strategies do you have to continue to spread God’s word even though they might not be entirely for it? 

I think there is always going to be this tension that exists in this space, especially for Christian athletes who understand that one of our purposes is to be missional in the context of our teams. And the tension is urgency to share on one hand and having patience on the other. My wife leans towards urgency and I lean towards patience. Regarding your situation, I would encourage you to remember that sport provides so many opportunities for people to experience the roller coaster of emotions. My advice would be to just pick your spots wisely. Ask God to make it clear when he wants you to step in and encourage or share something or engage spiritually. For example, if somebody has been resistant to God or any sort of spiritual openness, maybe at a time when they are injured or something is not going right, you just shoot them a text that says you are hurting with them and praying for them. It’s the old adage, people don’t care what you know until they know that you care. Find ways to show care first, then look for opportunities that stem from that.

8) Sometimes I feel like the balloon is ready to pop. School pressure, girlfriend pressure, pressure from my friends at home and then pressure I put on myself to be noticed at football and to succeed. I am a very private person so it’s hard to talk to people. I do talk to God all the time and I found some of the prayers you mentioned very different and interesting. How can I effectively pray for myself and still remain grateful and humble? 

I appreciate the vulnerability and authenticity in this question. There is a lot here so I will try to keep this answer as simple and straightforward as I can and we can talk offline if you need to keep processing together. You mentioned pressure from others and then pressure from yourself to be noticed—and pressure to succeed. Against this backdrop of feeling all of this weight to perform, I would encourage you to pray scripture that declares truth about you that requires nothing of you in return…which is upside down from what you experience in sport. If you are in Christ, meaning you have believed in your heart and confessed with your mouth that he is Lord of your life, the Bible declares plenty of things that are now true about you. And I think many of them speak to where you might be at in life right now. 

I would encourage you to read Psalm 139 daily and let the words reverberate in your heart and soul. What I am hearing in the question is: I want to be seen and I put pressure on myself to be seen. Psalm 139 is God’s assurance to us that he sees us and loves us. 

9) When it comes to passive vs. active obedience, is there a difference between following the written rules of a game and playing by the rules that the game is actually played by when there are unwritten rules?

I think I argue in the book that passive obedience happens in sport when we just instinctively play by the rules of the game. Because we have played so long, we just habitually know what to do and what not to do. Active obedience requires us to make a choice that requires us to think about it. When it comes to unwritten rules in sport, I just want athletes to begin thinking about what it looks like to play their sport with the highest possible level of integrity. I think there are a lot of factors for each specific sport when it comes to unwritten rules which is why this conversation is difficult to just put a blanket answer over everything and assume all Christian athletes have to follow that advice. I’m not really comfortable doing that. What I am comfortable saying is that you should pray about these “unwritten rules” that you may or may not be breaking and ask God’s Spirit to convict you, in the moment, of what is right and wrong and let Him be your guide.

10) In the conclusion, you talk about the importance of obedience to God even if life doesn’t go the way that we’d like it. On the last page of the conclusion, you say: “Your obedience and willingness to glorify him should not come with strings attached.” I take from that sentence that we should be following Christ wholeheartedly. However, I am wondering what some specific examples might be of a person who is obeying and glorifying God WITH strings attached—like some specific ways people can get tripped up in life by those “attached strings?” 

Yeah, good questions. Attached strings in sports for Christians, in my experience, most commonly connect obedience to athletic success. We’ve talked about this already but it’s so important that we wrap our heads around this. So, God, if I don’t look at porn this week or if I don’t go out and party with my teammates, then you will probably help me in my sport. Most athletes wouldn't say that out loud, but it’s a pretty normal game we play. If I am good, surely you will bless me athletically. 

We just saw one on social media with Megan Rapinoe. She hurts her achilles in the first few minutes of the game and afterwards makes a comment that says something like, “This is proof that God isn’t real.” That’s strings attached theology. It’s saying “God I am only going to believe in you and trust you so long as I stay healthy and experience success.”

As I was writing the conclusion of the book, one of my fears was that an athlete would read the book, apply the suggestions, and then expect God to magically fix everything in their life (especially the area of sports) because they started to live faithfully. He may make some things easier. But his goal is that you would look like Jesus. And he, because he is God, is allowed to use whatever he wants to move us towards that good end. That could mean success. But it could also mean losses, or injuries, or other hardships. Our role, as Christian athletes, is to live faithfully to God within our context of sport and not allow circumstances to derail our trust in him.

11) Have you ever had a coach that affected how much you loved the sport?  If so, in what ways, and how did you find a way to get that love back? 

Honestly, as a distance runner, you need to be pretty self motivated because when you're running for a long time, you’re really by yourself for long stretches. So I learned pretty early that my motivation and joy needed to come from within and not from an external source like a coach. WIth that being said, I don’t want to just punt on your question. I wrote an article on this a while back about how to reclaim joy in sport. In it, I encourage athletes to pray for it (because God is a Father who enjoys it when we experience joy), practice gratitude (it’s Biblical and studies consistently show that grateful people are more happy), and find ways to play the sport like you did when you were younger. 

12) “Who have you seen represent ‘Giving Glory to God’ most in today’s world of sports?” 

Let me answer this in two ways. The first is probably the obvious answer with a question like this. Right now, for me, it’s probably CJ Stroud. Like we mentioned before, he has a platform where people are paying attention to what he does and what he says. And he is using that opportunity to share the Gospel.

The second way I would answer this is, only the absolute best of the best get a microphone put in their face after competition. So, unfortunately, we don’t really have a good grid to think through when it comes to “who is doing this well” other than listening to post game interviews. And that’s one of the reasons I wrote the book. There could be a cross country runner at this college that, through her effort and attitude and through loving her teammates like Christ, is glorifying God, maybe even more than CJ Stroud. But the world will never know that and get the opportunity to celebrate it until we get to eternity together.

14) What trends or factors have you identified that are leading causes for Christians losing their relationship with God?  And a follow up what have you found that best helps these athletes reignite that relationship with Christ that they are losing? 

I’m not in campus ministry any more, but far and away the greatest factor pulled both men and women away from the faith was a boyfriend or girlfriend that didn’t share the same faith values or convictions and the pull towards sexual immorality slowly numbed their affections for God. I can’t tell you how many men and women who were strong Christian leaders within the ministry met a significant other who did not share their same faith—and they would ultimately be influenced negatively because of it. How is the relationship with Christ reignited? There’s probably a combination of things like prayer and reading God’s Word, but I think one of the strongest contributors in this space that I have witnessed would be a solid Christian community. When you step into a community of people who are passionate about anything, and you stick with them, that passion usually rubs off on you and you begin to develop it yourself. 

15) In Chapter 6, you talk about injury placing you on the sideline. Has there ever been a time in your life where you have been sidelined from an injury, and what emotions came with that and how did you work through them?

I’ve only been injured once in college and it honestly came at a time when I welcomed the break from waking up at 6am and running twice a day. But, more recently I've played a little more basketball and just broke my pinky. I was so frustrated. Playing basketball is one of the things I most look forward to and for about 3 months, I couldn't do it. So, how did I work through the emotions? 

To start, I gave myself freedom to just feel what I was feeling. For the first few days I had a pity party and sulked around the house and lamented the fact that I couldn’t play for a while. I let myself be sad and frustrated. And after I gave myself permission to do that, after a couple days, I just kinda moved on to the next stage of the process which for me was accepting it…that didnt mean I was happy about it, but I just worked through it.

Here’s the thing. There may be a playbook for grief but there certainly isn't a timeline that says every person has to be in denial for 3 days and then sad for 3 days and then they move on to the next step. We just don’t know how long it’s going to take. But we have to at least start by allowing ourselves to feel the sadness that comes with it. And in that process, we need to trust that God can handle our frustrations, sadness, and pain. We can, in those moments, move towards him instead of away from him.

16) From a coach’s perspective/point of view, how would a Christian coach be able to glorify God in sports when their stability is reliant on winning, and the team is not winning?

Ok, let’s start with this: coaches should try to win. The kind of the point of sports, especially the way it exists today when we can do it vocationally. Coaches depend on 18-22 year-olds playing well in order to keep their jobs. Essentially, what is being asked, I think, is how can a coach still glorify God when their team is losing or struggling. I was talking with some coaches last month about this idea. How do we glorify God when things are going poorly in life. I’m reminded of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20:12. Three opposing armies are teaming up and closing in on his city. Instead of panicking, he calls for the people to fast and pray. Odd strategy right? I would tell the archers to get to the high points, put the women and children in the middle of the city where they can be protected, grab our armor and weapons and be ready. Nah, let’s stop eating and seek the Lord. That’s King Jehoshaphat’s strategy. In 2 Chronicles 20:12, he prays “Lord, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” So, how can coaches glorify God when things are going poorly? By fixing their eyes on God, putting their trust in him, and staying relationally connected with him instead of just going into panic or fix-it mode. 

They can pray Philippians 4:6,7:  “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, present your request to God. And the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

17) Knowing that coaches are not to be the athletes’ friend, how do Christian coaches maintain respect and discipline with the team while also glorifying God? 

I would push a little against the idea that coaches can’t be friends with athletes. I can be a dad to my kids but also be their friends. It’s possible to play two roles in a relationship. But when it comes time to lead them and help direct their steps, they need me to play the role of dad and not friend. But I get what you are asking with this question. 

You asked how can coaches maintain respect and discipline while also glorifying God? I would say the very act of establishing a culture of respect and discipline on a team is, in itself, glorifying God. We see the character traits of respect to authority and others and disciplined living all throughout scripture. So, the pursuit of those two traits is a God honoring pursuit. But it’s glorifying to God  when it is pursued in God honoring ways. So, for example, establishing a culture of respect and discipline through fear-based coaching and manipulation is not honoring a God, who prioritizes love. The means and the ends need to line up. We need to do the right things, in the right ways, for the right reasons. 

18) How does an athlete give glory to God in an interaction on the field, when an opponent mocks you for being a Christian, or plays as if God is not watching?

In Matthew 5:38-39, Jesus says “You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. ' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” I don’t think we need to categorize opponents who demean us for our faith as an “evil person,” but I think the ethic Jesus calls us towards is one worth following. Don’t retaliate. And this might be even more difficult: Don’t allow that interaction to motivate your efforts. How many times have we been motivated to a greater intensity in sport because an opponent said something and we now try and “get back” at them through performance? Our motivation, as Christian athletes, is something we always need to pay attention to. God prioritizes what’s going on in our hearts. 

19) How do you give glory to God when you don’t have a solid relationship with God? 

The simple answer to this is: you glorify God when you start the process of growing that relationship with him, which means that wherever you are at in your spiritual walk, as long as you are taking steps forward, God is honored through that process. Think of a baby learning to walk for the first time. What happens? Stand, step, fall. As a parent, I have never seen someone respond by saying “That kid is a moron. They’re never going to get it right.” No! Parents cheer like crazy because they are celebrating the steps, not focused on the fall. And God is a better parent than any of us. That’s the process of our spiritual walk with him. Step, fall. Step, step, fall. Keep getting up and moving forward with him. 

20) Brian, I found your insights on integrating faith into the daily challenges of an athlete;s life quite compelling. How do you suggest Christian athletes navigate the fine line between competitive drive and maintaining a humble, faith-centered approach, especially in the face of successes or failures? 

Two verses come to mind. The first is from Jeremiah 17:9 and it says this: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

So, what does this tell us? Our hearts are often messed up. How are we supposed to know, especially in competition, if we are truly being humble? It’s really hard. Here’s the second verse. It’s from Proverbs 20:5 and it says: “The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.”

So, how do you navigate this fine line? One way would be to find a mentor who meets with you weekly that can help draw out what’s going on in your heart. Because that’s really the question behind the question. How can I be sure my heart is in the right place through trying to be competitive and humble at the same time? How do I do this through winning and losing? On your own, it’s going to be really hard. But if you have someone willing to walk alongside you and ask you the hard questions, encourage you, challenge you and point you to God’s word and really draw out where your heart is at, I think it makes it a little easier.

21) What’s a developing issue that you have seen young athletes struggling with in youth sports? Follow up—part two-- How can we, as Christian leaders, mentor them as they face this issue?

I help lead a Bible study for middle school students every Wednesday morning. A couple weeks ago we were talking about motivation and I asked 60 kids what motivated them in sport. The overwhelming majority said, “My dad.” This isn’t always a problem, but it’s something parents need to be aware of. Their kid will often play for the parents' attention, affection, and affirmation. We need to be careful that our kids don’t make a connection between good results on the playing field and mom and dad being pleased with them. Because how we experience our earthly parents is often how we initially build our theology around how we think God acts with us. I think parents need to relax a bit and just enjoy watching their kids play (not perform). And they need to communicate that as much as possible, that they enjoy watching them play and that regardless of what happens, their love won’t change. I’ve been saying more and more: “We don’t need to overhaul the entire youth sports system, we just need to change the car ride home.” It starts with the parents.