"Lord, I don't ask that I should win, but please, please don't let me finish behind Akabusi."
The experience of Christian prayer in sport
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D Czech, C Wrisberg, L Fisher, C Thompson, and G Hayes, Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 2004, 2, Pp 1-19.
The experience of Christian prayer in sport - An existential phenomenological investigation, D Czech, C Wrisberg, L Fisher, C Thompson, and G Hayes, Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 2004, 2, Pp 1-19.
The authors argue that little is known about why and how athletes use prayer in relation to their sports participation. Any systematic examination of the Christian athletes’ lived experiences of prayer and sport is non-existent
The authors begin by acknowledging the presence of Christianity in elite American sport with practically every team in Major League Baseball, NBA and NFL holding Sunday Chapel services prior to games, with that repeated at collegiate level. Seeing an athlete make the sign of a cross before or after playing is commonplace.
The article reviews previous literature and concludes “in summary, prayer and religious observations are utilised a great deal in sport”, both as a performance enhancement technique and a coping mechanism for stress.
Their study “was to explore the Christian athletes’ experience of prayer in sport from an existential phenomenological perspective”, in other words “what is the lived experience of Christian athletes when they pray before, during or after an athletic event?”
The article consists of a study of nine former Division One American collegiate Christian athletes (from five different sports). 4 themes emerged from the data: performance prayers, prayer routine, thankfulness and God's will.
Many of the athletes found prayer to be just as important to performance as physical preparation with athletes seeing prayer as “a way to reduce anxiety and promote strength… and allow them to play to the best of their ability” - but did not pray to win. Prayer helped significantly to reduce the nervousness and tension that they experienced during performances. One athlete visualised placing the stress she was experiencing on God’s shoulders, some athletes prayed against injuries that neither they nor an opponent might get hurt. Several athletes referred to having a prayer routine on match day. Athletes referred to a belief that the outcome would be determined by God's will, which helped them to deal with the highs and lows of sport. Some spoke of praying that they would perform in line with God's will.
One athlete referred to Colossians 3:23 “whatever you do, work at it with all your heart but for the Lord, not for man”. With that attitude their participation in sport was elevated from the profane to the sacred and made sport integral to the spiritual life