Pesky Priorities

I am a sports fanatic. I especially love football and adore my Crimson Tide. But I am finding that sports are invading my life too much. As one author said, its not worth it to let three hours on Saturday ruin your whole year. ⁽¹⁾Chad Gibbs, God and Football 

But I am also concerned that athletics and other extra-curricular activities are rapidly invading worship. I mean, people are choosing ballgames over time with God and their brothers. One preacher that I esteemed greatly views such activities as the work of children but I disagree. I think lessons taught now will come back later in a horrid flood of secularism and weak faith.

Echo Kayser writes Family Discipleship Path, a blog aimed at her community church in California. She recently posted  Sports vs. Church, a personal and transparent account of the struggle parents face between attending worship and supporting kids in sports. The thoughts would also apply to band, academics, drama and other external events. These events are good but do not compare to the power of knowing Christ which comes, in part, from worship with the church. She writes,

Church attendance is not the goal…however, church is the way that God has provided for people to grow in their knowledge and love of who God is and build relationships with other disciples and from this time of focusing on Jesus and connecting with others who love Jesus we can go out into the world and spread the good news of Jesus Christ and his love with others.

Read her entire post and the comments. You will be surprised at her suggestions and dismayed at the utter shallowness of many of the comments. It was encouraging to read her thoughts. as you read, please remember Matthew 6:33: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness…”