February 8, 2021 - Cheer On (Not Tear Down)!

Sitting in the stands as a fan is a much different experience for me than sitting on the sideline as a coach… or being in the game as a player. Fans are a funny breed… with many different personalities. And in our modern sports culture, many believe their job is to correct and critique, more than to cheer. They want to correct/critique referees… coaches… and even players… (And there are obviously times that players think their job is to correct/critique… and times that coaches forget to add correction to their critique…)

I have posted many times in these weekly devotions that my philosophy is “player play, coaches coach, refs ref, fans cheer!”

Recently at a game I listened to a fan berating a young referee and watched the referee start jawing back at the fan. After the game I put my arm around the referee and said, “young man, you are doing a fine job; you are consistent in your calls, and of course you will miss some… we are human. But as hard a this may be, don’t get sucked into the dialogue with the fans… just call the game… that is what you are getting paid to do.” (Side note: I don’t referee, even though I could make some decent part-time money doing so, because I’m not really good at doing what I told that referee to do. In fact, my first time reffing, I was in 8^th grade and reffing a 6^th grade game… and found myself jawing with some of the parents…)

Also, this weekend as we watched games my wife got some great laughs out of things said in the stands. When our girls were going through a rough stretch on the court, a fan yelled “let’s play basketball!” And of course, we wondered if he thought the girls got confused on what game they were playing. Another time, following a missed shot, that fan yelled “you’ve got to make those!”; as though the girl didn’t realize that was the objective…

So how could that fan, or a teammate, or a coach have done more good for the girl that missed the shot? I yelled, “that was a great lane you ran… keep taking those shots, they will fall!” (The coach can later teach better execution of the shot…)

I could go on with examples, but the reality is that sports, like life, involve of a lot of good intentions falling short, and sometimes involve folks just making dumb plays. We have a Scriptural mandate on how we are to respond to that…

Last week I shared from Galatians 6 about personal responsibility, yet the passage also has a mandate about teammate responsibility… Galatians 6:1 says, Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any TRESPASS, you who are spiritual, RESTORE such a one in a SPIRIT of GENTLENESS…

If you have followed this devotional blog for long, you know I love words! Not just writing/preaching a lot of them, but truly finding the meaning. In that passage, the word TRESPASS has the idea of someone that has fallen beside, or had a lapse or deviation from doing what is right… in such a case we are commanded to:

·         RESTORE – to strengthen, perfect, complete, make one what he ought to be

·         SPIRIT – the vital principal that guides our attitudes and actions

·         GENTLESNESS – mildness of disposition

Our goal should be restoration, not rebuke! Let’s look for opportunities to encourage and build up this week! Let’s cheer each other, not tear each other down!