By: Bryan Patterson

We have one life; it soon will be past; what we do for God is all that will last — Muhammad Ali

DOES God really care who wins the football or cricket? Does he bless believers with victories?

If you watch enough American sport on television, you may think so. Their football matches can be frighteningly like revival meetings with prayers before the game, mass prayers on the field after victories and lots of pointing towards heaven after goals.

In the world of jock God is consumed with the outcomes of sporting events.

It could seem that God spends time helping the likes of Tiger Woods to sink a putt (consequently boosting the profits of or Adidas), while ignoring life’s real problems such as floods, famines and droughts.

In a classic scene from The Simpsons, Homer and his good Christian neighbour are playing golf.

Homer sees praying before the match and says, “Hey, I already did the same thing, and we both win.”

Since he prayed first, Homer argues, God is on his side.

That’s the sort of belief that, strangely, has some currency in sporting circles.

Athletes seem awfully fond of publicly offering prayers of thanks to God after scoring goals and touchdowns.

But when they miss, God is never mentioned. Perhaps the losers blame Satan, although the devil of darkness is these days most commonly credited with writing hit pop tunes.

What is disturbing is that the public show of faith in sporting arenas often seems to have elements of self-promotion.

Jesus made the special point of telling his followers to “not imitate the hypocrites; they love to stand up in synagogues and at the street corners for people to see…

The US Collegiate Athletic Association attempted to ban prayer from its sporting meetings a few years ago. It lifted the ban after being sued by Christian groups.

Now athletes may cross themselves without drawing attention to and kneel for a moment after a race…

You wonder what Martin Luther would have made of all this.

Despairing over the public posturing of churchmen who he considered hypocritical Luther famously said “good make good shoes, not poor shoes with little crosses on…

No wonder a US Baptist minister was prompted to call for ‘a separation of God and sport…’

Psychologists have said sporting events could generate feelings of spirituality and provide values once associated with religion.

And author Donald wrote that sport, for Australians, was life and the rest was shadow.

He could be right.

Watching sport seems to have religious overtones.

It seems to offer a communal spiritual experience in a world in which there is no common faith.

Yet, how could anyone compare the fate of a football team with the more profound joys and tragedies of life?

BILLY Sunday, the great baseball player turned evangelist, became increasingly suspicious of sport’s influence.

An unknown US Civil War soldier wrote a prayer that put it all in perspective:

I asked for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men and women; I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for, But everything that I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am among all people most richly blessed.

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