"Lord, I don't ask that I should win, but please, please don't let me finish behind Akabusi."
Love your neighbour
It is the final run of the two-man bob (bobsleigh) in the 1964 Winter Olympics. It is neck and neck between, Eugenio Monte of Italy, the current world champion and the British team of Robin Dixon and Tony Nash. Then disaster. The British pair discovered that the main bolt holding their back axle in place had snapped in half. There would be no time to have a replacement brought. It was all over for the British team. Monte on hearing of the Britons' plight, removed the bolt from his own bob after his second run, to have it fitted in the British bob. The Britons won the gold medal. Monte commented on the incident later, 'My action was very normal for a sportsperson. You try to help the other people to have the same conditions that you have.'The Lord God said, It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him Genesis 2:18
Love your neighbour as yourself. Matthew 22:39
How do we love people in the tough, competitive world of sport? Is it at all possible?
What does it look like to please God as we play our sport? Genesis chapter two pinpoints two very specific principles, which we must apply. We have seen that the first is how we use our talents; the second and complementary principle is how we develop our relationships. We shall consider pleasing God in our relationships in the following four chapters.
Genesis 1:26 makes it clear that we are created by a God who is relational: let us make man. We learn from the Bible that God is Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Has it ever occurred to you that God has never been lonely, apart from the defining moment in history when he voluntarily gave up his own Son to die on the cross for our sin? God is a relational and loving God. Humankind is made in his image and is therefore meant to live in relationship too.
This is why it's not good for man to be alone. We need to be loved and to love. The context in Genesis 2 is the marriage of a man to a woman, the most fundamental of loving relationships. However, the principle of our needing helpful and healthy relationships extends to all other human scenarios, from those amongst families and friends and extending to those on the sports field. We are to demonstrate and proclaim God's image and presence in all we do and, for us as sports people that must include our sport.
Loving your neighbour as yourself and treating others as you would want them to treat you in the cauldron of competitive sport is a radical concept. In the next few weeks we will see how to apply an attitude of loving our neighbours to our team mates, our opponents and the officials.
When Jesus told his followers to love their enemies, it was a truly radical concept. Applying Jesus' command to love our neighbour to the world of sport will not be easy.