What a roller coaster Sunday night's Game 2 of the ANBL Finals was for the NZ Breakers V Cairns Taipans – double overtime surely tests the blood pressure, and as a Breaker's fan we spent more times in the down bits of the roller coaster, I can tell you! Over 100 people turned out at Windsor Park Baptist in Auckland to watch it on the big screen. It was an exciting game and typical of why many of us love sport.

The question has been asked of the Breakers chaplain, Grant Harris, if he prays for them to win. Trouble is, he says, if he were to do so then the chaplain for the opposition is pulling on the same strings from his side!

Stuart Weir (Verite Sport in the UK) recently sent me the piece below about this topic based on Matthew 7:7 Ask and it will be given to you.

One day this week the main picture on Page 1 of The [London] Times was of Indian cricketers celebrating their victory over Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup. The newspaper editor obviously thought that was the most important thing happening in the world that day! Sometimes there is a sporting contest that somehow grips the world.
What really took my eye was an article on an inside page under the headline "Pakistani prayers not enough", which reported that "Special prayers were offered in mosques for the victory of the national team" in Pakistan. The prayers were not answered.
A few years ago, an academic published a paper: "Prayers for assistance as unsporting behaviour." Is it cheating or gaining an unfair advantage (like taking drugs) if you pray to win?
A football club chaplain in England once told me he was watching his club play a vital game when a man behind him leaned forward and said, "Reverend, pray!" The chaplain replied that he did not think that prayer worked like that. But, he told me afterwards, "In case I was wrong, I prayed!"
During a recent major sports event, where there was a multi-faith religious centre, all the chaplains met together one morning. One of the Christian chaplains told his colleagues that he thought it was important that none of the chaplains promised victory to any competitor who came to the chapel. He felt that an athlete who was unsuccessful after seemingly being promised success in the name of God was likely to turn his back on God. I thought it was a helpful and brave stance to take.

I got a great email from Steve Willis in response to the above.

Steve coached his brother Nick Willis in the lead up to Nick's 1500m Olympic medal at Beijing – a wonderful moment to see a NZ black singlet back on the dais again in Olympic middle distance running. Initially it was a bronze on the day, but after drug testing and a disqualification, Nick was promoted to silver, and a gold in London is a realistic target! Nick's post-race interview on NZ's Radio Sport that day was a great testimony and witness to his Christian faith that made me feel extra proud that day.

Steve says:

The prayer Nick and I prayed before his 1500m final in Beijing was that God would take all of Nick's God-given talents and gifts, all the hard work he had put in during years of training, any anxiety about what tactics to use, his injury concerns, fear of failure, his childhood dreams, the weight of expectation, and all prayers from people at home, etc., and use it all for His purposes.

I don't know whether God specifically intervenes with the outcome of sporting events, but I'm sure He definitely uses certain situations to reveal himself to us. So while it's probably OK to pray for the W, it's probably better to pray that races or game days are a fair reflection of an athlete's/team's talent and training and that God would be honored from it !

In Beijing we prayed specifically that Nick would have a good clean race and not get boxed in or tripped etc. ... and we were able to give praise to a faithful God when He answered that prayer !

If you finish the race or game with nothing left in the tank, then what else can you do.

This is a wonderful example to us of how to pray just before the big games, big races or big events in our lives – remembering that what is big in our life doesn't have to be an Olympic event or an ANBL final! It's all relative.

Andrew Kerr
Convenor - Christian Sports Network NZ

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