Football and Faith

I played on my high school’s football team. Those who know me today might be able to guess at the positions I played: tight end, defensive end and long snapper. However, when I was in high school, I was close to 6’ 3” and weight a whopping 155 pounds! Needless to say, I did not instill much fear in the other lineman in the league.

At practice my blocking buddy was the biggest guy on our team. Scott was 6’ 5” tall and weighed 235 pounds. I could never quite push him back, but I did get to the point where he could not push me back -at least for a few seconds.

Now Scott was a big guy – at least by our league’s standards. You see we played for a small Christian school. Scott had the size and the ability to play on a public high school team, but whereas he was a big fish in a small pond in our league, he would have been a little fish in a big pond at most public high schools.

What does this have to do with faith? For those of us who have kids or grand kids in college or heading to college – specifically a secular college – we must remember that while we have raised them well, their faith is not our faith. For most of us God has given us years of learning, trusting, growing and believing which has strengthened our faith foundations. They have not had the time to fully develop their faith.

Imagine when I played high school football if I tried to go up against a high school all American? The results would not have been lack luster at best. But what if that high school all American tried to go up against a division one college lineman? It would probably not be very competitive. What about a high school all American against an NFL lineman? We would pray that the high school player would not get seriously hurt in the exchange! At the very least we would have to prepare them not to get hurt.

When we send our kids and grand kids off to a secular college or university, they will face stiff challenges to their faith. Not only from other kids with similar skills and abilities as theirs, but from professional academics. Are they ready for that challenge? I hope so, but I believe we need to be intentional about preparing them for that challenge. That means we need to make sure they know what is coming, how their faith will be attacked and how to answer those challenges.

While the Bible is the Inspired Word of God and Its Words will never pass away, it is not respected on the campuses of most secular colleges and universities. Their “gods” include science, philosophy, humanity and sex. However, we don’t have to fear these “gods” because they are not gods at all. What we do need to do is the prepare our children for how they will be influenced by these ideas.

Someone once said the best defense is a good offense. We need to prepare our children and grandchildren by discussing with them ahead of time what they may be taught. We also need to prepare them by giving them reasonable answers to those teachings. However, to be able to teach them how to defend their faith against these attacks, we must first understand the attacks ourselves. What are you doing to understand what is being taught and answers to those teachings? Peter commanded us to always be ready to give an answer for the hope that lives within us (1 Peter 3:15-16). Are you ready? Are you getting your children and grandchildren ready?

This will not be a fair fight. It will be like a high school player going up against a college or pro player, but we must do what we can to prepare them for this challenge. To ignore the challenge or to assume that they are ready without any type of preparation would be a mistake. Let’s help prepare them for the battle for their minds and souls.

How do we prepare? The great news is that there is a wealth of information on the Internet. Ministries such as Cross Examined, The Ehrman Project and Ravi Zacharias Internal Ministries are all excellent resources to start with. Never heard of them? Well now you have…