On the Sidelines of Sports and Faith

The Energy of Nations in Sport

coachkunst — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:21:35 +0000

The World Cup is an impressive display. The jet-taking-off decibel level, swarm of bees plastic horns. The bright colored jerseys. the dances, both in the stands and on the pitch. The demonstrative pleading with stoic officials. The unraveling of team unity in the face of adversity. The voracious, venomous world press. Only with real passion, national level fervor, can so much emotion come pouring out over a game played on a field of grass with one ball, two feet, and two lungs. And heart – hearts buoyed by representing millions.

This morning, I felt that little bit of rush, sequestered in a time share in Virginia, my 8 year old son and I ran around the room, screamed at the tv, chastised the officiating, and jumped up and down in the final minutes as the U.S. pulled out an exciting and historic victory. Aidan, my son, leaped off of a battle worn sleeper sofa in excitement.

It is funny how nationalism can bring this out in a person. I love the Giants and Yankees and (sadly) the Knicks. I go up and down with the undulations of Notre Dame football. But rarely do I act as I acted today in their support.

If I were to search the word “nation” in an online Bible concordance, I have no doubt that it would appear … a lot. Probably hundreds of times. God placed his people in a nation, in a structure that would bring them together, but also would bring them in conflict with other nations. I tend to like to think God knew what he was doing, and perhaps that national passion is supposed to be born of a respect for that structure – a similar structure that Christians have with God and his son Jesus as the head of our nation (and no, that doesn’t make Jesus Joe Biden – let’s not get carried away. In the stands at the World Cup, they sing and dance and praise their nation, as we do for our God. I suppose that is enough to say, except for this: GO U.S.A.!

Walking Out Of The Office

coachkunst — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:47:18 +0000

I have finished my last day as Director of Athletics for The Stony Brook School, my alma mater. I have spent 15 of my 39 years in this world on this campus as shell-shocked 8th-grader, reasonably confident senior prefect, teacher, coach Director of Admissions, and now Director of Athletics.

The office I now occupy is dedicated with a plaque to the memory of the late Robin Lingle, who was an iconic coach, administrator, and leader here at the school. I think about him often. What rings in my memory is the quiet, confident spirit with which he served … and I mean really served … the community here, and the smile with which he did everything. I can only hope I have served half as well, and that I will continue to honor his memory going forward.

In my new position, halfway across the country, Robin’s son will be working for me. My life seems linked to Robin somehow, and I can think of no better man to be linked to.

“And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God.”

2 Corinthians 3:3-5 (English Standard Version)

A Time for Striving

coachkunst — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:59:01 +0000

I heard a sermon preached today about the person of Jesus and who he is. Of course, that always leads to the Imago Dei, the idea that we are created in the image of God. This is God’s self-expression and we are his love. It is a fascinating and beautiful idea. When I taught in Texas, the english text we used had an excerpt from the Autobiography of Ben Franklin in which he had made a list of the virtues he was trying to achieve each day and he would check them off when he did, like I might do to that ever present TO-DO list on my desk. I don’t remember how many items were on the list, but it was quite a few, reaching to the end where his last challenge to himself was to “Be Like Jesus.” A lofty goal for your average Monday. I have no idea how many times he was able to check that off at the end of the day, but I suspect it was not many – it wouldn’t be for me. When i reflect on Franklin’s charge to himself, I always come back to the same word: striving. The unachievable goal. The unwinnable situation. The unclimbable mountain. And yet, so often in the face of adversity, we find a way to surge forward, to achieve and win and climb and fail spectacularly and climb again. We strive. I know that as I consider the image of God and my part as a reflection of Jesus, I am too often a poor reflection, refracted back to substance through Christ’s love and grace. And yet I can strive, and in the striving toward perfection, toward the image, toward Jesus, I can bless and be blessed. I can believe and be loved. As I enter another football season with 35 young men from every walk of life you can think of, I want to strive to bring them to that place, so that they may reach for may seem to be beyond their grasp. What greater gift can we bring to young people, particularly young men, then that of an inspiration to stretch out their hand to a place beyond what they know. The apathy, the sloth, the distraction of this generation, an abiding in the status quo, in the unmoving virtual, may be lessened through the simple act of striving, and in that are we then the Imago Dei?

Prodigal Thoughts

coachkunst — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:28:14 +0000

For my job, I have been asked to read Tim Keller’s book The Prodigal God, a small, clearly written sermon that uses the story of the prodigal son to break down many of the core facets of Christian life and how to live it. In fact, the subtitle is “Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith.” Keller acknowledges a debt to a number of other writers and thinkers, including Ed Clowney, Ken Bailey, N.T. Wright, and Henri Nouwen all of whom have evaluated this particular parable, and all of whom have given particular emphasis to the importance of the older brother, what he represents of the Christian, hist equal state of “lostness.” Keller’s thoughts on the pride of the older brother and in imagining what the older brother should have done – go after the younger brother in the first place – are perhaps the most striking points to me and a good reminder. But perhaps what was best about this book for me was inspiring me to go back and re-read Henri Nouwen’s beautiful and personal The Return of the Prodigal Son. Reexamining Nouwen’s also tiny book led me to a passage that strikes at the heart of what I thin k this year might bring and inspires me to be an agent of change. From Nouwen:

Life in community does not keep the darkness away. To the contrary. It seems that the light that attracted me to L’Arche also made me concious of the darkness within myself. Jealousy, anger, the feeling of being rejected or neglected, the sense of not truly belonging – all of these emerged in the context of a community striving for a life of forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing. Community life has opened me up to the real spiritual combat: the struggle to keep moving toward the light precisely when the darkness is so real … There is little romanticism to community life. There is the constant need to keep stepping out of the engulfing darkness onto the platform of the father’s embrace.

And so as a leader in the community in which I live, my task is clear: keep moving toward the light, and if I can, extend a hand down to those who would follow and guide them onto the platform of the Father’s embrace. Definitely a challenge, but I want to be the older brother who goes after my younger brother, who at least wants to try.

Heroes and Villains

coachkunst — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:10:27 +0000

An interesting week for character in sport. Michael Vick gets his second chance after serving 20 months in federal prison for dogfighting, signing with the Philadelphia Eagles and placing himself amongst the hardest, most critical football fans in America. Donte Stallworth, a wide receiver for the Browns, gets suspended for one year from the NFL for accidentally killing a man when he was driving drunk – the NFL is being harsher than the courts, which only gave him 23 days of jail time. Rick Pitino, threatened with an extortion plot, reveals that he cheated on his wife with another woman in a restaurant 6 years ago, and the President of Louisville University stands behind him because “he has been a role model for countless young people.” On this day, none of these men are heroes. Are they villains? I’m not sure I am the one to cast the first stone.

Yet our world, and especially are young men, could use a few heroes, a few public role models to look up to, instead of what is becoming an almost constant stream of disappointments. Is the standard for these public figures too high? Perhaps, but that is in and of itself a sad statement, that we live in a society that has high hopes, and yet continues to allow behavior that is uninspiring, immoral, and criminal. Are the Philadelphia Eagles numb to that? Are the courts that let off Stallworth? Is the president of Louisville University? Or are they, and we, examples of compassion and forgiveness? I am inclined to forgive, as I have blogged about before – I may be soft, or charitable, or just saturated to the point where I am satisfied with some punishment, even if it is just 23 days or a little public embarrassment. That’s probably the case. I love sports and I want to watch them and enjoy them – but I also want my boys to be able to find a hero or two, even just an example of clean living? Maybe it is enough to see failure and be challenged by it.

“When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.” Jonah 3:10

Wondering about Wonder

coachkunst — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:14:13 +0000

Just got back from a family vacation to New Hampshire. It was a good trip and a nice vacation – it won’t go down as epic or anything, but it was peaceful and nice to get away. As we returned today, I watched my 12 week old son stare out the window at the trees as they flew by, and I was reminded of the quality of wonder, that little bit of curiosity or awe that our jaded society would probably mock and stomp on. And yet here was my littlest boy, with nothing but potential ahead of him, engaging in a simple act of seeing what was around him and being willing – not knowing any other way – to be thoroughly enthralled and amazed by it. It actually looked like it brought him joy as a wry smile crept to his face. Then there is my oldest son, who while watching the Yankees-Red Sox game the other day, runs to his mother to get her to watch a replay of Derek Jeter catching a double play ball, jumping over the hard slide, landing on his feet and gunning a throw to first for the out. I was impressed – my son was amazed. He was probably more right in his assessment. Perhaps the athlete, the leader, the son, the father, the man – might all be served a bit better and be a little better at what we do if we allowed ourselves to indulge in wonder, letting it wash over us with its spirit and its perfection and its greatness and its hint at the glory and power of God.

In Defense of Rivalry

coachkunst — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:08:49 +0000

My two boys, 7 and 3, like to compete. They can turn any game, any use of the imagination, any barely audible word uttered into an intense battle. It will generally end in crying or punching or, and this is true most of the time, both. I find myself scolding and yelling and encouraging them to create situations where they are on the same team, working together to fight whatever enemy their little minds can conjure up. And yet I am also raising them to be die hard Yankees fans, and as my eldest son and I followed tonight’s Yankee game against the Red Sox, we took great glee every time we scored a run against this rival, this enemy. We’re high-fiving around the house, he is giggling with each homer the Yankees belt. Yankees-Red Sox is a great rivalry, and though rivalries stand upon tradition and history and are built over time, they are best when the teams are relatively evenly matched. When the Yanks and Sox are two of the better teams in baseball, the rivalry has a real excitement to it and gains a sense of importance. Part of the problem with the match-up between my sons is that it is an unfair fight on most every level, though the 3 year old does have a way of getting his shots in. My dear departed friend and colleague, Jeff Adams, and I built up a teaching rivalry. I taught AP U.S. history and he taught A.P. Government; we shared many of the same students. They used to come in and tell me the exciting things they had learned in class that day and how brilliant Mr. Adams was and so I tried to raise my game to match. We were both better because we pushed one another, and the best rivalries find a way to encourage that kind of growth, sprouting out of the often deep roots of tradition. One of Jeff’s favorite verses was Proverbs 27:17: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” I just ordered t-shirts for my football team, and that is the verse on the back of the shirt this year – that is a spirit of leadership that is not afraid of the rival, or the equal, that does not have to lead by putting others down. We can sharpen and challenge one another, we can thud away with passion and hope and joy and believe that we can be part of a great plan. Yanks just scored again …

Sipping from the Cup of Courage

coachkunst — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:31:48 +0000

A few years ago I heard a series of sermons that was discussing servant leadership. The speaker made the point that many of the best-selling business books, the how-to-be successful leader type of things, were recommending a movement back toward certain basic Christian values – not that they would call them Christian values. One example he mentioned was Jim Collins’ Good to Great. I have read the book and I like a lot of what Collins is trying to say. He boils successful leadership down to two basic qualities: humility and courage. Courage is a tough concept to easily pin down – some might say that you know it when you see it. I live in a neighborhood that has a volunteer fire department – their actions are courageous, born of a servant’s heart and a willingness to exact a measure of risk for the safety of others. This is the kind of courage that everyone recognizes. Then there are things like faith and conviction, like being a person who lives in the truth, like digging deep into one’s heart to find a sense of discipline or patience. These are the tiny moments of courage, the careful, thoughtful steps that aren’t always flashy, but that ring out strong with integrity. And it is in moments that the leader finds their measure of risk, of confidence, of faith. It is Abraham lifting the knife above his son, or Moses standing defiantly before the Pharaoh that had given him so much comfort, or David reaching for a stone. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong” (16:13-14). He is clear and concise in his directive. The poet Maya Angelou captures the sentiment well, as she relates its foundational quality: “One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” If we are building the house of the leader, then courage must be placed at the base, to sustain the weight of all that might crumble above it.

Strapping Up

coachkunst — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:47:17 +0000

Football season is finally upon us. One of my favorite writers, SI’s Peter King, is roadtripping to training camps and “tweeting” along the way. My fantasy football leagues are in countdown mode to their drafts. I get almost daily e-mails from the Jets trying to sell overpriced season tickets. It is definitely that time of year – something in the air or the way the grass smells, something about exactly how the breeze feels against my skin or the quality of the rain. I can’t explain it, but I can certainly feel it down to my soul. And it is in this season that I miss “strapping up,” getting the opportunity to put on the pads and pull on a helmet and engage the enemy, a test of strength and will and, in some ways, the soul. Perhaps I overstate. But for those that have played the game, overstatement is a bar we can’t reach. And it is always in this season, the late summer, in the midst of the training and the preparation, that I come back to Ephesians, to the armor of God and what it means to truly prepare for battle, a real battle for my soul and for the soul of those around me. It isn’t just about me – it can’t be just about me when so many need to be brought into the sacred huddle. The words ring out, incredible poetry and incredible truth:

“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6: 13:18).

Enough said.

Being Creative

coachkunst — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:29:38 +0000

If there is any one tenet of a leader that I believe is crucial, it is the ability to be creative and to think creatively. Peter suggests in his second epistle that he is writing to “stimulate you to wholesome thinking” (3:1). “Wholesome” is an interesting word choice – in modern English vernacular it is come to mean pure, or full of good things. The first definition that pops up in a dictionary though indicates that it can mean “conducive to moral well-being.” The last definition is “sound.” We talk often in leadership about sound judgement, but I think it is not a leap in Peter’s world to argue that his implication was that we should be stimulated to sound moral thinking. To me, this is where creativity comes into play. With the world and the situations we face ever changing and with young people becoming more difficult to reach on an intellectual or emotional level, perhaps even on a spiritual level, then the whole sum of a leader’s thinking must be to explore the new, to create something from where there was nothing, from where there was a void. Creativity is a spiritual gift as well as a spiritual challenge. It requires courage, the fortitude to try and fail, the discipline to move forward, the trust to be led by the Spirit and listen to the small, quiet voice of God guiding your thoughts and words. What has been, the precedents, should be a guide to facing our present challenges, but they should not be an anchor around us. A new tradition can be born every day – today is a good day to start.