Dear Friends,
Last night I attended a virtual high school baseball umpire’s meeting
as I prepare for another year of high school umpiring. As a high school
baseball umpire for almost 30 years, I have heard my share of “Where was that
pitch, blue,” a vernacular for “put on some glasses for you are blind as a
bat.” Unruly fans have become more the rule than the exception in our sports
culture of today. Our lack of civility and sensibility has trickled down to
sports talk radio where callers voice their opinion in ways that defy
understanding.
For 8 years I served as chaplain and athletic director for Calvary
Christian Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. Some or our sporting events were not
only well attended, but they were marked by as much fervor and excitement as
one finds in the biggest college rivalries. Because of the potential for
disparaging our Christian witness, we were always concerned about how both our
fans and our players would conduct themselves.
While it may be hard to believe, one high school took
sportsmanship to a whole new level. They instituted a novel and unusual policy
to police sportsmanship at their basketball games. They took three students
from one of their leadership clubs and gave each of them two cards, a red one
and a yellow one. When a parent was guilty of doing something of an
unsportsmanlike character (yelling at an official, criticizing a coach, barking
at another player) one of the students would go up into the stands and issue a
yellow card or a red card to the offending spectator. Yellow said, “Please show
more poise and self-control”. And the red said, “your behavior is
inappropriate, please leave.”
When the basketball coach was asked how many times this system has
been implemented, he replied, “only once.” Imagine how humbling it would be for
a fan, especially a parent of a player, to be escorted from a game by a student
because that person had modeled poor behavior. It is true that when adults
behave like children, children will never learn how to behave as adults.
Now you might laugh at such a novel idea. It is unrealistic you
say, and you are probably right. But I can tell you from my experience of
umpiring and watching Friday night high school football games, it might be one
of the most effective ways to quell such offensive behavior.
Paul writes to the Philippian Church, and he exhorts them to “Let
your conversation becometh the gospel of Christ.” Philippians 1:27. He also
exhorts them in Ephesians 4:29 “not to let any unwholesome words come out of
their mouths, but only that which is helpful for building others up according
to their need.” Those are wise words for all of us to hear whether as
spectators at games or those calling in on talk radio.
I will never forget hearing the words from the mouth of retired
former Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino whose son played on one of the teams we
played. He told one of our player’s parents whom he was sitting next to that
“he had never seen greater sportsmanship or self-control exemplified by any
school his son had played.” I will never forget his parting comments to that
parent who told me he said, “I would like to know more about your school.”
Gathering at the center court of our basketball games and at the
50 yard line of our football field to pray with our secular school opponents
was one way our school was able to witness to the world, but the power of that
witness could be quickly lost in an instant by the words of an unruly fan, or
the conduct of an impatient volunteer ticket taker, or the critical gesture of
a player directed to an official over a missed call. Beware, those of you who
attend any sporting activity, the eyes of the world are on you as you serve, as
you play, as you coach, as you watch, and yes, even as you take tickets or
serve food. What kind of witness will you leave for people to remember you by?
A young man went into a restaurant, and he noticed the sweet
fragrance of roses wafting through the dining room. When he asked the waitress
if there was a rose garden nearby, she exclaimed, “No, but there is a perfume
factory across the street, and it’s quitting time, and what you are smelling is
the fragrance of perfume on the clothes and bodies of those leaving from the
factory.”
Wherever we go, let us make sure that we too leave the same kind
of fragrance of Christ behind. Paul says it well when he writes “But thanks be
to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us
spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the
aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To
the one we are the smell of death, to the other, the fragrance of life.” 2 Cor.
14:16
Be on guard New Monmouth brothers and sisters. Your words and
actions reveal more about your character than you would ever think!
Yours in faith,
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