Spiritual Formation 8/9/2021 8:49:00 PM Shannon O'Brien

Living Faithfully In A Fragmented World

Recently in college athletics it's been all the buzz about the NCAA permitting the "Name, Image, and Likeness" opportunity for a student-athlete to leverage their identity, talent, and reach to become profitable across multiple platforms. While we all are still navigating this new dimension to college athletics, it made me consider a spiritual lens: what does it look like to truly find our name, image, and likeness in Christ? Am I, as a person in Christ, maximizing this opportunity for His Kingdom's gain? Does the world need it? And if so, how am I leveraging it?

In my work in athletics spiritual formation, I am challenged and inspired to help our student athletes and coaches live faithfully into Christ amidst our fragmented world. It is of significance in doing this, to help people grow in knowing Jesus more intimately, and through this, grasp the Gospel for their own lives. The Gospel, the good news of Jesus' redeeming work on the Cross for our sin, and His resurrection life offers us a freedom and privilege to live in such a way that it invites others to want to get in on what God has done. This concept of inviting others to get in on what one has done is also what the "Name, Image, and Likeness" is also leveraging.

Through social media platforms, student-athletes and people are living in such a way that it draws others to want to get in on what they are doing, or at the very least, bear witness to that person's life. From a secular point of view, this is relatively a new concept, but from a Biblical perspective, this is over 2000 years old. We read in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 that we as Christ followers are called to be His ambassadors, a privilege to represent Him. As Christ followers we are called to live on mission for the sake of the world, for it is, "the unchanging mission of the church to witness the good news of Jesus Christ, and in that witness discern the present reality of that redemption and shape the church's mission accordingly."1 Our lives in Christ should bear witness to the transformational power of Christ actively working in and through His Holy Spirit in our everyday living; and in how we do that, the name of Christ, the image of God, and the likeness that we have been created in His image should draw others to Him.

I have found that being able to not only share our own story but share our story and how the Gospel impacts our story is critical in helping to invite others to get in on what God is doing in the here and now. As a retired athlete and current coach, I have the opportunity to witness the good news of Jesus Christ amidst people who are longing to feel known and be loved for who they are, and not just for what they do. This may sound like a silly acknowledgment, but the reality is most athletes don't feel seen and valued for who they are because most of the time they are only affirmed in value for performing well. Too often athletes are seen as pawns in someone else's game, transactionally utilized for another's gain. Here lies why the NIL opportunity for athletes is such a big deal. Student-athletes, while still leveraged as pawns in someone's game, at least can be paid for their efforts. On one hand this serves the athlete's achievements, but on the other, this still feeds the same worship orientation most all of us in athletics were raised with: finding our value in what we accomplish, and creating a narrative that tells us that we matter only because of what is earned and provided. But what if I told you that's not how it works in God's Kingdom?

Student-athletes and coaches who are seeking to know Jesus need help in a worship realignment with sport. Meaning, that through sport we can still be faithful to the Gospel and help encourage our student-athletes and coaches to find their identity and worth in Christ by what He has done, and not base it off anything that they do or don't do. This is paradoxical thinking for any performance-based environment. Athletes are repeatedly told through youth sports that their worth is in what they do and how much praise and award they receive for their accomplishments.

In discerning this present reality that our student athletes are navigating, I have the opportunity on Lipscomb's campus to invite students to find their story and worth in the Greater story offered by Jesus Christ. Through Lipscomb athletics spiritual formation, we are seeking to help aid in healing the fragmentation our athletes have experienced in understanding their self-worth and identity based on performance. Thankfully, as author Jonathon Wilson has named so well, "The Gospel is not merely something from the past that continues to live on in the memory of the church; it is also, and more significantly, the redeeming work of God in Jesus Christ present in the past and present today." As a member of Christ's body, uniquely our settings and circumstances allow for the Gospel to permeate our spheres of life through our lives lived. The need for the Gospel message to be told, shared, and emphasized in our life's witness matters.

The Gospel is powerful because it is anchored in and on Christ and His redeeming work. Our world desperately needs the good news of Christ's already accomplished work on the Cross and the intersection of His good news permeating our chaotic broken lives. As we participate in the redemption of Christ in our lives, others notice. As sign posts to God's Kingdom, we are to invite and help others be ushered into the Kingdom of God through baptizing and teaching others about Jesus' redeeming work. In Lipscomb athletics spiritual formation, this is what we are trying to do. We desire to pursue and live authentically and share our stories of how God has changed our lives. As we do this honestly, the Lord uses it effectively to increase the Kingdom of God and witness others being transformed and empowered to also live into the mission of God in their own lives for the sake of the world.

So how does this resonate for you? I invite you to do the same as our spiritual formation team strives to do here at Lipscomb: Become a transformational coach, become a transformational parent, become a transformational person in the life of another. Your name, image, and likeness in Christ matters to the Kingdom of God, and this world needs it more than you may believe. In John 17, Jesus prayed for us to know Him, and make Him known, and that alone is reason enough to leverage your NIL in Christ. After all, it may just alter someone's eternity.

Resources:

Jonathan R. Wilson. Living Faithfully in a Fragmented World: From After Virtue to a New Monasticism (New Monastic Library: Resources for Radical Discipleship Book 6). 51, 192. 2010.
2 Corinthians 5: 14-21 MSG Version: "Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you. How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God."

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Living Faithfully In A Fragmented World