In Albury-Wodonga, the weekly free newspapers used to include a column of reflections. They were written by local  ministers, or similar (authors included a local Baha’i leader, as well as someone from the local humanist society branch). I don’t know why they stopped. Equally, I don’t know if they achieved anything!

Cleaning up my computer, I found a few of mine. In the interests of recycling, I will re-release them on this blog.

Do you love sport like I do? Or do you think there is far too much fascination with games? Either way it’s impossible to miss how much we watch and talk about sports. As the footy season finishes, cricket and netball begins. And to fill in any gaps I can watch the rugby world cup too. Truly, too much sport is never enough.

We love sports to see people achieve. Lima Azimi of Afghanistan ran the women’s 100m at this year’s world championships, a first for her country. She’d never used starting blocks before, and did not own a tracksuit. What an effort!

Unfortunately, even the most skilled athlete will let us down. She will drop the ball, he will prove arrogant, the team will become angry at critics. It’s unfair to make sports people our heroes.

As a Christian, I am thankful for the one person who will never be a let-down, the man Jesus. As it’s put in the Bible ‘For me, to live is Christ.’ He performed under pressure and always loved people. He went through the pain barrier of the cross. He scored the winning goal by rising from the dead.

Knowing this makes sport so much better. I still want my team to win, but my life doesn’t depend on it.
October 2003