Saturday, 06 December 2008
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What's your passion?
Ok for those who don’t know, I am an avid sports fan. I primarily follow the Philly sports teams (in order of priority and passion: 1. Eagles, 2. Phillies, 3. Flyers, 4. 76ers; but Penn State football trumps the Phils…sorry Phightens but you didn’t give me an undergraduate education, though you have educated me in patience and what it feels like to root for a Champion YEAH!). I also enjoy golf (especially in HD), and will watch that more than basketball and hockey, especially the majors.
One of the best things (and worst things at times) about sports is the passion people have for what really amount to meaningless games. The passion is immeasurable. The Super Bowl has pretty much become a national holiday. One of the defining attributes of Thanksgiving is FOOTBALL. They are just ingrained in our mindset, and spring many passionate, often heated debates. These debates are what add to the passions of the spectators.
One debate kind of caught my eye on ESPN. An article on the page 2 (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=3739665) debated whether Michael Phelps of Olympic swimming history is the GREATEST ATHLETE EVER. Ok, the opening quotes pretty much gushed over Phelps and argued that it was inarguable… Phelps is definitely the greatest athlete ever. The author of the article disagrees and makes a great point, “Great athletes should show a variety of skills, and a degree of coordination that translates to almost any athletic endeavor. Watch a great athlete play basketball, football, tennis, soccer, hockey or even certain positions on a baseball diamond, and you can see athletic abilities that would translate to other sports.”
Phelps is definitely the greatest swimmer I’ve ever seen, but he is a specialist. A quoted athlete later in the article is Brian Jordan. Brian Jordan along with a couple others like Bo Jackson and Deon Sanders played at the professional level in MULTIPLE SPORTS. Diversity of talent NEEDS to be a criteria in any discussion regarding the best athlete ever.
Oh but it is a fun argument isn’t it? That’s the passion of sports. You know I wonder if we were as passionate about other things as we were about sports, what changes might take place? Would voter turnouts be higher if we were more passionate about politics? Would the Christ take the world by storm if we moved folks from “attenders to advocates” as one church leader put it? So where is our passion? I love sports, but no athlete died on my behalf, conquered death, and rose again for the single purpose of hanging out with folks like myself for all eternity. That’s something worth celebrating. That’s what we do at CrossPoint, and if you are ever in Harrisburg, come celebrate that with us! www.xpointumc.org
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