Welcome to today’s Daily Redemption — where we explore whether rooting for your team honors God or crosses into coveting, and discover that delight in beauty becomes worship when anchored in Christ.
Featured Scripture and Commentary:
Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Oh this is going to be an unpopular one! I care not. I only care about whatever God cares about and I rebuke anything which is not in his favor and this needs to be discussed in that light. No. I am not the “Great Arbiter” but I have dedicated my life to God. I certainly fail at times but I am 100% sincere in the attempt. And not like someone I knew who said that every time he was with a girl he thought about Jesus. I was floored. That is not worship but desecration. I will seek to do better.
Do you know that there are a few sports sprinkled across the globe that focus more on beautiful performance than competition? A couple come to mind: Poi spinning (New Zealand) Weighted balls on cords swung in rhythmic patterns — beauty of movement is the focus. Can be meditative/non-competitive, though competitions exist. Also
Capoeira Afro-Brazilian Martial art with fluid acrobatics. In the roda (circle), participants take turns showing skill/beauty — less about “winning,” more about expression. Still has competitive elements.
Am I saying that competition is a sin? No, Rockefeller said that while creating monopolies so let’s not go there. Woody Guthrie called him “Wreck-a-Fella”. So what is the problem? Where is competition ungodly? Right here – in the quest for the trophy it becomes an idol and it is coveted. If one has misaligned priorities it becomes not a godly pursuit but a violation of at least two of the 10 commandments right at its heart center.
What is it about sports that should make us pause and feel uncomfortable?
* When fans get out of control and lose their compass, even violently. European Soccer anybody? Need I say more? When people are praying for the outcome in a significant sports competition it leaves no room for what is the real trophy – the earnest quest in our hearts to be able to say, as Jesus in Gethsemane, “not my will but thine My Lord”. The trophy becomes “God, be on our side not the other guy’s”. Every soldier goes into battle with the intention to force this grace and favor. The cameras pick up every person praying in the stands with incredible intensity and broadcast it to millions – in an attempt to make worship and religious practice seem over the top weird and make people uncomfortable with it. It is a spectacle. So why would they not fill up our screens with it? Treating a child’s game as if it has eternal weight, as if the other team is “the evil empire” facilitates these people to use prayer meant for communion with God to a pagan ritual to bring the wrath of God down on the opposition. It becomes idolatry. If someone is identifying so strong with their team it is now emotionally destabilizing and engaged in idol worship. God never promised your team would win. But some try to force him to. Is it prayer or violence? If they had a weapon to turn on God and demand he make their team win or else… I mean where does it end? It certainly crosses a line.
Jesus prayed in Gethsemane with sweat like blood — not for a win, but to get past the personal desires of the part of Him that was 100% human even while sinless until He accomplished surrender: “Not my will, but Yours.”
The fan praying “God make them miss this kick” is asking the opposite: “Not Your will — my will.”
And how holy can any crowd of 50000 people be if none of them are set apart but joined together as a mob. People who treat a game like Armageddon often treat actual human beings — spouse, kids, strangers — with less reverence than a jersey. The intensity is misdirected. The heart is disordered. They are coveting with cupped hands they appear pious when the camera is on and go home to slap the kids and kick the dog through a bush..
Godly fandom prays through the game: gratitude for beauty, grace toward rivals, humility in loss.
Ungodly fandom prays at the game: demanding victory as if God owes them a trophy.That all being said, yes — it is godly to have a favorite team if your heart remains anchored in Christ. The question isn’t whether you root for a team. It’s whether your joy, identity, or peace depends on their victory.
Coveting isn’t wanting something — it’s needing it to feel secure, significant, or joyful. That’s idolatry. But delighting in beauty, skill, and excellence? That’s worship — when you trace it back to the Creator.
You can want your team to win without coveting. Like hoping for sunshine on a picnic day: preference, not dependency. You can feel disappointment in loss without despair — grief over broken beauty is human, but your soul’s stability rests in Christ, not a scoreboard.
You can celebrate excellence without envy toward rivals. The opposing team’s brilliance isn’t theft — it’s another reflection of the Giver of all skill. Wear the jersey without wearing the identity. “I’m a fan” ≠ “I am my team.” Your true citizenship is elsewhere. You might have been a Dodger fan when Reggie hit those three home runs in the 1978 World Series for the Yankees against three pitchers on the first pitch from them each time but can you step back and admire God working through Reggie to do something remarkable?
God gave us play, beauty, and tribal joy for our delight — not our devotion. Root for your team. Just don’t let them take root in you. The sadness we all feel when our team has lost is deep. Pray into it for the Lord to elevate your spirit to a higher place where we can rejoice in the day that the Lord has made…regardless who wins the game of the day.
CORROBOARATING SCRIPTURE
Philippians 4:4, 1 Corinthians 10:31, Colossians 3:5, Hebrews 12:1, 1 Corinthians 9:24–27, 1 Timothy 4:4–5. Full quotes from these citations are waiting for you on the website when you click through.
Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Psalm 24:1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.
Colossians 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
1 Corinthians 9:24–27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
1 Timothy 4:4–5 Everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
HOMILY
That all being said, yes — it is godly to have a favorite team if your heart remains anchored in Christ. The question isn’t whether you root for a team. It’s whether your joy, identity, or peace depends on their victory.
Coveting isn’t wanting something — it’s needing it to feel secure, significant, or joyful. That’s idolatry. But delighting in beauty, skill, and excellence? That’s worship — when you trace it back to the Creator.
You can want your team to win without coveting. Like hoping for sunshine on a picnic day: preference, not dependency. You can feel disappointment in loss without despair — grief over broken beauty is human, but your soul’s stability rests in Christ, not a scoreboard.
You can celebrate excellence without envy toward rivals. The opposing team’s brilliance isn’t theft — it’s another reflection of the Giver of all skill. Wear the jersey without wearing the identity. “I’m a fan” ≠ “I am my team.” Your true citizenship is elsewhere. You might have been a Dodger fan when Reggie hit those three home runs in the 1978 World Series for the Yankees against three pitchers on the first pitch from them each time but can you step back and admire God working through Reggie to do something remarkable?
God gave us play, beauty, and tribal joy for our delight — not our devotion. Root for your team. Just don’t let them take root in you. The sadness we all feel when our team has lost is deep. Pray into it for the Lord to elevate your spirit to a higher place where we can rejoice in the day that the Lord has made…regardless who wins the game of the day
PRAYER:
Lord, I love the beauty of the game — the skill, the strategy, the shared joy of a crowd rising as one. Guard my heart: let me enjoy without idolizing, root without coveting, celebrate without envying. When my team wins, teach me gratitude. When they lose, teach me grace. And always — always — remind me that my true trophy is already won in You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
