| The essence
of athletics is our relationship
with nature with its focus on the physical body performing in the physical
world. Athletics offers an avenue to experience creativity within
order, beauty and function, bodily control, achievement, utilization and
preservation of physical abilities, health and safety. Think about
your favorite sports in light of these aspects of our relationship with
nature. Sports that involve teamwork, competition, or spectator interactions
add the extra dimension of human relationships to athletics.
In academia, athletics is tied to the third of three tiers with its dependence on physical conditioning in the health sciences. Like many other activities, athletics must be kept in check because excesses can diminish the Lord's place in our life. Even though athletics emphasizes our relationship with nature, God would have us pursue it with passion and bring glory to Him through it. God ultimately provides us with the athletic ability we have and the physical world to play in. |