Outward Signs

There’s something about sports that draws us to them. Sports are exciting. We admire the best players. We want our hometown teams to acquire the best talent. We expect the coaches will give those players the tools to win. Then, we want to enjoy the way our team overcomes all the obstacles they face and win.

My family are Pittsburgh Penguins fans. It’s ice hockey’s Super Bowl week, the Stanley Cup playoffs. By the time this is published, I’ll either be buying championship tee shirts for my kids to wear, or dreaming about next year’s season. We’re hoping they take Discover.

How in the world does this have anything remotely to do with faith? I’m getting to that part, I promise. In today’s celebrity-worshipping culture, it’s not easy to show our kids the value of hard work, perseverance and skill. These are the parts of sports that most of us appreciate, even if our lack of athletic skills means we play croquet.

While watching hockey last week, right before the start of the game, we noticed a prominent player made the sign of the cross. Now, we have no idea if this player is Catholic, but being so famous, and such a role model for the game, the action of making the sign of the cross is huge. Considering all the bad things going on in the world, Sid Crosby’s act of faith is important. So are all the other Christian men and women’s examples when they wear their religious medals, kneel in prayer, or speak out about the role faith plays in their lives. It’s not easy to give an outward sign of our faith. Just look around the next time you go out to a restaurant; how many people make the sign of the cross and say grace before they eat?

These signs give us courage because we aren’t alone in our beliefs, and we need them today when there are so many who mock the role faith plays in society.

When the best in sports acknowledge the talent they’ve been blessed with is from God, we all win. In this day and age, we’ll take every positive role model we can get. That identification of faith with sports tells our kids faith matters. We need those outward signs to demonstrate there is a higher power that helps us, whether we win or lose.