Four Observations For Athletes From Jonah
“How do you teach the Bible to athletes when the Bible doesn’t say much about sports?”
Linsey and I were wrapping up a ministry presentation at a local church and taking a few questions when an older gentleman raised his hand and curiously asked this question. It was a great question—and he’s right. The Bible uses sports as a metaphor, but not in a way where a college athlete could flip through the pages and find an answer about whether or not they should enter the transfer portal. The question opened up an opportunity to do an impromptu devotional from the book of Jonah on what it looks like for sports ministers to contextualize what’s written in the Bible to an athletic audience. Hopefully what follows will be the first in an ongoing series about how athletes can read and feed from God’s Word—even if it doesn’t directly talk about sports as we understand them today.
Let’s start with a quick recap of the book of Jonah before we get to the four observations for athletes.
The book tells the story of a prophet, Jonah, who receives a word from God to preach repentance to the wicked city of Nineveh. Instead of being obedient to that call, Jonah chooses to run and he boards a ship to flee in the opposite direction.God sends a storm and the people on the boat understandably freak out. They find out the storm is caused by Jonah’s disobedience to God and they throw Jonah overboard. The storm comes to a halt—and Jonah is swallowed by a great fish.After three days, Jonah finally prays to God and submits to the plan. The fish spits him out on land, and he goes to Nineveh and delivers God’s message.
Unsurprisingly to Jonah, the Ninevites repent and God shows them mercy. Jonah is ticked! The book ends abruptly with God teaching Jonah a lesson about compassion and the value of every life.
What does it look like to take that bizarre story and teach it to athletes? Here are four observations worth considering.
God uses people to reach people
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” - Jonah 1:1-2
God could have showed up in Nineveh and demanded that they repent. He could have sent an angel. He is not limited in ways to communicate to this people group that he wants to show compassion towards.
He chose Jonah because God uses people to reach people. This is a significant thread throughout scripture.
When God wants to move and flex and work, he rarely goes directly to the source. Instead, he finds an ambassador who will go on his behalf and represent him. Many times, the chosen ambassador is hesitant to follow the call. But God is unwavering in his strategic approach. He consistently shows up and tells his ambassadors, in effect: “Go where I tell you to go. Do what I tell you to do. And say what I tell you to say. I’ll be with you.”
Athlete, God has a holy purpose wherever you are at. Maybe he has you there to win championships. Maybe he has you there to break records. If you are a follower of Christ, you can be sure of this: part of his will for your life is to be a living example of Jesus to your teammates. God can use you to reach your teammates. In fact, it’s one of his signature moves!
He uses people to reach people. Will you say yes?
You can pray anywhere
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish. - Jonah 2:1
Jonah prays to God from inside the fish. God hears the prayer and commands the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land.
Don’t miss the significance of this. Have you ever been told that God doesn’t care about sports? Or that we should keep our prayers in the locker room? Jonah’s actions teach us something critical about the gift of prayer.
We can do it anywhere.
Athlete, if Jonah can pray from inside a fish, you can pray on the field.
Now, the content of that prayer is a separate discussion. But from Jonah, we learn that God can hear us in any circumstance.
Nobody is too far from God’s grace
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. - Jonah 3:10
In a devotional series for She Reads Truth, Rebecca Faires says this about Nineveh:
“Nineveh was the worst. A chief city in the already brutal and wicked Assyrian empire, Nineveh removed the noses and ears of their prisoners to mark and maim them for life. And like most Mesopotamian civilizations, their culture was immoral and generally terrifying—temple prostitution, child sacrifice, abortion, and infanticide.”
If God’s people were collectively asked “What’s the one people group incapable of receiving mercy from God?” The collective answer would be: The Ninevites. The Ninevites were, bluntly stated, morally awful people. And yet, when they were confronted with their sin, their hearts were convicted and they repented.
But as Faires later observes, the story of Jonah is less about the Ninevite's repentant hearts and more centrally about the mercy and forgiveness of God.
Athlete, who is the one person in your life who is too far from turning to God for grace? Of course, we would never admit this out loud, but who is the teammate who “would never turn to God?” Who is the competitor that “would never surrender their life to Jesus?” While we may have categories like that in our hearts, God does not. Nobody is outside of the reach of his mercy and forgiveness.
And here is the craziest part of all of this. God may want you to be the conduit of his grace to that person. Remember, God uses people to reach people. So whether it’s a teammate, rival, classmate, or even a coach, take a lesson from Jonah. When God gives you an opportunity to be a light that person, be obedient—because nobody is too far from God’s grace.
God provides
Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head sothat he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live. - Jonah 4:6-8 NIV
After Jonah sees the Ninevites repent and receive mercy from God, he is upset. He wanted them to get what they deserved! So, he climbs a hill and finds a plant that gives him some relief from the sun. But notice the language in the text:
God provided a leafy plant (to give shade to Jonah)
God provided a worm (to chew the plant)
God provided a scorching wind and sun (to tire Jonah)
In Jonah 1:17, it says “The Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah.”
Do you see what’s going on? God provides all along the way for Jonah. But it’s not always the provision that Jonah wants. God’s provision is meant to bring Jonah holiness more than happiness.
Athlete, what does this mean for your life? It means all of life is a provision from God. Yes, you have a role in training for your sport and trying to get better every day, but God may not always provide success on the back end of that training. What if we began framing our athletic experiences through the language in the book of Jonah? It might look something like this:
God provides good teammates—and bad ones too.
God provides kind coaches—and angry ones too.
God provides wins—and losses.
God provides individual success—and injuries.
This isn’t just using religious platitudes to help you feel better when things don’t go your way. It’s about reorienting our perspective to see that in all things, God is working to draw us to himself. Sometimes he may do that with success and winning seasons. Other times he may do that with losing streaks, bad teammates, and injuries.
But through it all, God provides.
