IVP - Strangely Dim

Out of My Head and into My Body

I know this sounds crazy, but I've just become a regular contributor to a sports ministry website.

I've never been one for sports, but when I moved to the Chicago area I fell into a crowd of sports-guys. I figured I'd better do what they asked, since any one of them could crush my head like a blueberry, so I started going to football games and even playing the occasional round of golf.

It's still not me, but along the way I've developed a new appreciation for athletes. They were all really nice to me, for one thing. Not one of them threated to turn my head into jelly, and not even once have I been the subject of a pile-on tackle. But I've also learned by experience some stuff that I should have embraced as a kid.

First off, the body is good. God made us each with one. Exercising our body is as important an expression of our humanness, therefore, as exercising our mind or our soul.

Second, sport binds a community together. Ask your friends, and eventually you'll wander into stories centered around a Super Bowl or a World Cup or simply a round of golf or a day of fishing.

So now, I write for sportsoutreachusa.com, an organization that helps churches reach out into their neighborhoods and build community through sports. I even try to raise funds for them by golfing for twelve hours (which works out to about one hole for me). Shoot me an e-mail if you'd be interested in sponsoring this exercise in futility next week.

Shameless plug, I know, but that's how the game works. If you'd like to read my inaugural sports mini-essay (I may have just coined a phrase), visit www.sportsoutreachusa.com and click on "In the Field Training." I'm currently the last article on the list, which is as it should be, I think.