And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and goods deeds. (Hebrews 10:24, NIV)

You may be surprised to learn that Roger Bannister is still alive. In fact, at 81 years old, he probably has a lot of golf left in him, if he chooses to play. Not that anyone knows Bannister for golf. They know him for his mile.

In the spring of 1954, with three men equally close to breaking the barrier, it was Bannister who ran history’s first mile in less than four minutes. The milestone was almost certainly far more psychological than physical, especially considering that Bannister was one of the more lightly trained athletes ever to achieve a world record of this note.

Though Bannister had held the four-minute mile before his mind for some time, he knew that his window of opportunity was closing, as his main rivals, Wes Santee and John Landy, pushed up against the mark several times in late 1953 and early 1954. So while strong winds on May 6 nearly caused Bannister to jettison his attempt, when the winds died, he reset his mind and went for it. His time: 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds.

In the week before Armando Galarraga’s stolen glory early last month, I was finishing my spring reading of one the most important books a Christ-following athlete and sports fan can read, Shirl James Hoffman’s Good Game.

Hoffman asks all kinds of excellent questions and challenges the way the church in America has increasingly put its stamp of approval on every venture of sports without thinking critically about how, say, ultimate fighting carves into a spectator’s soul, not to mention what it does to the God-designed brain of the participants.

One of those key questions is this: Do sports really provide opportunities for learning that other endeavors do not?

For instance, we often say that the practice of sports trains an athlete in dedication and perseverance. Such a statement is intended to “automatically” condone the purpose of sports over and above other ventures. But what is a pianist learning through hours of committed practice? Might it be dedication and perseverance? And might it come without the risk of injuries that can alter a person’s quality of life for years to come?

I know, I know, it was Rooney for whom Spanish-speaking World Cup referees prepared by memorizing a list of English obscenities, so the English striker couldn’t lay in to them as he had other field officials during the run-ups.

So maybe Rooney isn’t a very good Catholic.

But he did show up to a training session with his crucifix and rosary some days ago, and those other World Cup officials—the kind who enforce every rule that has nothing to do with, say, teams having marvelous goals taken away without explanation—stepped in. Uh-uh, no religion allowed.

All this may leave World Cup officials in more than a fix a few weeks down the line here. That is, if the seeds play out and Brazil wins the Cup. Because, well, the Brazilians these days are praying, preaching athletes. They want you to know that they belong to Jesus. At least that’s what the shirt midfielder Kaka has been known to wear under his jersey says. How do we know this? Because the man that FIFA’s own site describes as “firmly established as one of the finest players in the world” does what most soccer stars do after a match—he takes off his jersey. But instead of his showing his chiseled musculature or his tatted skin, Kaka uses this moisture-wicking billboard to announce his beliefs. His religious beliefs.

I am actually a huge World Cup fan, so if you’re looking for some good ol’ fashioned soccer trashing, you’ll have to go somewhere else. Not too many days ago, I heard a sports talk radio guy say that he didn’t like any sport where you have to “understand the intricacies” in order to appreciate it.

Heaven forbid we’ve got to think about our sports! After all, they’re supposed to be stress-relievers. (Dare you to make that argument to a soccer mom who’s on her ninth practice of the week, by the way!)

The fact is the good folks at FIFA and ESPN would like you to believe that sports—and especially the World Cup—go far beyond a little bit of stress relief. Soccer/football (a nod to those who know what the game is really called), they say, is capable of changing the world itself. The Cup will unite us and inspire us and cause all aspects of life to appear rosier in most every way. If I sound like I’m exaggerating, note that I am simply echoing what the TV and radio ads have been telling me for several weeks.

In case you’ve missed it, it has been a busy week in the world of sports.

Monday, May 2 – (CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) A University of Virginia men’s lacrosse player, George Huguely, is arrested on suspicion of killing his erstwhile girlfriend, UVA women’s lacrosse player, Yeardley Love. Though Huguely confesses to killing Love, his attorney calls it an “accident.”  

Monday, May 2 – (PHILADELPHIA, Pa.) A teenage fan at a Phillies game brazenly leaps onto the field at Citizens Bank Park, but when he eludes the grasp of security officers, a member of the Philadelphia PD uses a taser to subdue him in the outfield. A debate about the proper use of police force ensues, with certain reference made to the 2002 case of Royals first base coach Tom Gamboa, who was stabbed by two unruly fans who made their way onto the field.

In trolling the Internet this morning, I came across a couple of different discussions about the “celebrations” of athletes who point to the sky or make notable gestures of faith when they play games, and especially when they score.

You might be surprised at the consensus of comments.

In essence, it sounds like this: “These fools think that God doesn’t have something better to do than orchestrate a victory for one team or another.”

Oh, the great debate has arisen again.

When I was a teen, I wrote a number of quotes in the back of my Bible—ideas from better thinkers than I about the way God’s world works. One of those quotes was this: “God doesn’t choose sides in sports events; God is for God.” Of course, I was young then.

Several times each week, I write for our daily devotional at Links Players International. The devotion I have prepped for Thursday seems appropriately shared with you here:

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him. (Romans 6:8, NIV)

It has been an easy week for the sportswriters. The contrasts between winner Phil Mickelson and the returning Tiger Woods on Sunday in Augusta made it so. One local writer where I live spelled out the contrast succinctly: “Even if Tiger had won, his wife would not have been there to hug him.”

And then there was the contrast between Woods and fellow non-winner Lee Westwood in their post-round interviews. Only one was gracious—exceedingly so, as a matter of fact. There’s something quite redemptive, I realized again, about a loser who can wear a smile.

In the most recent issue of FCA’s Sharing the Victory magazine, writer Jill Ewert considers with three Major League Baseball stars what it takes to stand out as the light of Christ among teammates who prefer the darkness (see “Light it Up”).

I love the premise of the article, and there is admission among the athletes of some of the difficulties facing committed Christians in locker rooms. But I also wonder sometimes, when I read articles like this in Christian publications, if we aren’t regularly guilty of making solutions sound too doggone easy: "Come on, anyone can do this." When a basketball coach gives pointed instruction to a player trying to improve his free throw shooting with a tone that says “this is so simple,” I have to think that for most players the result under pressure won’t be positive.

Here’s the deal. If you enter the NCAA basketball tournament as a No. 5 seed, the committee is saying this about you: “You’re somewhere between the 17^th and 20^th best team in the country. The way we see it, you’re going to win one game in this deal and then you’re headed home.”

Well, hello Butler and hello Michigan State. This pair of No. 5s have now won four games each. They’re headed to the Final Four. Madness.

The only displeasure is that one of them will finally go home before the final, because they’re meeting each other next.

Of course, there are a thousand other reasons to call this tournament—regardless of the year—madness. A college football playoff could never see the collection of upsets that make up a basketball tournament, because football just doesn’t open itself up to “on any given night” like basketball does.

I won’t venture to guess how many people have really been waiting for this day, but this morning’s papers bring news of yesterday’s announcement from Tiger Woods: he’s coming back for the Masters. Far too much opinion has been offered on this matter already. I won’t go there.

Meanwhile, the experts are high again on one Kobe Bean Bryant, the oft-titled “best player in the game,” whose nearly 28 points per game have again powered the Lakers to the top of the Western Conference and have the professional guessers speculating as to the possibility of an eleventh title for coach Phil Jackson.

Ah, Tiger and Kobe.

Linked by greatness. And by sexual calamity.

Two men needing forgiveness. As you and I do, of course--in the salvific sense of having not one breath of a chance without Jesus.