Basketball blues

You wanna know something difficult to do? Be a classy sports fan .Sounds almost like an oxy moron right? What does a classy fan look like? Well... You root for your team. Support the kids and encourage them. Recognize when they make a good play.I think that good fans can help make the game fun for the players A classy fan is positive,has self control and perspective It's the kind of fan I want to be.

Why is it so hard to be a classy fan? One area where I often struggle is reacting to the refereeing. Many of the calls a ref makes are subjective and often a call really impacts the flow of the game. For example, in last night's game my team got called on three offensive fouls as different players drove hard to the basket. Each time, the shot went in but the basket was waved off. None of those boys drove hard to the basket like that again during the game. Were they offensive fouls? I didn't think so . It felt so unfair. What is the best response to something like that? Yelling at the ref might momentarily make me feel better, but its not what I want to be know for.

Another difficulty..some teams just get my goat before they even take a shot. I don't know what it is but the attitude or spirit that emanates from some teams is classless. Everything feels "in your face". Our school plays this one team where some of the visiting parents sit in the home team section. What's up with that? It feels antagonistic to me. It's hard not to get drawn down to a lesser way of cheering, and to start rooting against the other team and the other parents. To tease and to taunt. But I don't really want to be that kind of fan.

It's funny to me how much God uses sports events to mould and shape my character even when I am only a fan. I am convinced that 99.99% of the time the Lord is completely unconcerned with who wins and loses. That He is hands off and allows things to unfold according to all the choices each person playing or reffing has made. So whether my team wins or loses He uses that in me for my good, honing and shaping me more into the image of Jesus. And when I step away from the sporting events and look at my life, what I really want is to be pleasing to God, to be a sweet smelling aroma.

Now that's an oxymoron--what I really want is to to give up what I want and do whatever pleases Him

"Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us , and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us..."Hebrews 12: 1b