2012-01-02

2012 Goals: No Sports Conversations


I really enjoy sports.  I absolutely love baseball.  But what I really am starting detest is when the only thing some people talk about is sports.  In the great grand scheme of things sports mean nothing.  Which isn't to say that depth of character, and the beauty of a story cannot be found in the realm of sports.  But the conversations I typically find myself in are not those.  Rather they're just a lot of noise about stats, and Monday morning quarterback decisions, and mutters about games that I know nobody in that conversation really has a concern about.
Fantasy sports have really pushed this to the next level.  We talk about the scores and stats of games and players that we would never concern ourselves with otherwise.  And we speak about them as if our lives really in balance.
And I guess I'm just frustrated that I'm easily drawn into these conversations.  And I don't want to say that I think talking about sports is wrong.  You and I go out to lunch and talk baseball for hours and I would complete enjoy that discussion.
It's just that I want my life to be about more.  And I'm willing to purge this portion of my life, for the small percent of my time on earth, in hope that the Spirit of God might be powerfully displayed.
I want to have conversations in my life that have greater depth and worth.
I want my words to be filled with grace and truth, not stats and scores, so that that the powerful work of the Spirit in my life could possibly bring life change in someone else's.
I could have picked several of topics to ban myself from instead of sports.  It could have been movies, or television, or food, or music, etc, etc, etc...  But I chose sports because I think it's going to be incredibly difficult.
I'm not even sure how this plays itself out.  Can I listen to others speak about sports?  How do I politely excuse myself from engaging in a discussion (something I wrestled with today while speaking on the phone with my dad and he asked me about the 49ers and the NFL playoffs)?  I'm foreseeing a couple of exceptions to this discipline, but I'm not looking to pursue this on a legalistic pursuit, so I'll be willing to offer grace to myself in certain scenarios.
And I'm sure that I'll fail with regular consistency.
I just think this is something I have to do.