"Football is not a matter of life and death, it is more important than that."
The sower 2
Some seed fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Matthew 13: 5-6One of the saddest things I have seen in my life is people who seem to have become Christians and then abandon their faith. Why does this happen? Sometimes the gospel is watered down to make it attractive to people. Jesus never understated the price of following him. Or people come with wrong motivation. I remember an athlete who seemed to have become a Christian giving up his faith because believing had not made him run any faster.
Jesus explains the rocky ground as: “The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away” (verses 13:20-21).
If we come to faith in Jesus we need to put down roots by developing godly habits, reading the Bible, praying, meeting with other Christians. We need to develop our faith and relationship with Jesus so that we are able to cope with the challenges that come along – injury, disappointment, not making the team, not producing our best performance on the day it matters most. All these are part of our sporting life and our faith needs to be sufficiently rooted in Christ that we are able to deal with them.