Mark 1:45
Has your success in athletics and the resulting popularity ever led to a loss of privacy for you? Many people of sport who achieve highly become celebrities and thus lose the ability to move about freely in society. You might be thinking, “I’d like to have that problem.” We can watch that happen to Jesus as we read from Mark’s gospel.
At chapter 1 and verse 45 we read, “Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.”
Jesus had just done some seemingly impossible things in town and the man that was most affected couldn’t help but talk about it. Jesus asked him to keep it quiet, but the man’s excitement couldn’t be contained. All this resulted in a level of celebrity for Jesus that began to rule his life, he couldn’t go anywhere without a crowd gathering.
Even if this season results in you and your teammates becoming big celebrities, stay connected to your coaches and friends. Your teammates are the ideal support system. Practice and competition can be your escape from the crush of the public. The people you want in your life can still find you and you can enjoy the more private places for retreat, like Jesus did.
Let’s compete today in a tremendous way and give everyone a reason to treat us like celebrities.
(Roger Lipe is an acclaimed author/writer and also serves as the executive director of the southern Illinois chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and chaplain for SIU Football. Follow Roger at www.sifca.org and http://sportchaplainsportmentor.blogspot.com/.
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