Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch and in today's episode, we're asking the question, who's ruining youth sports? This is prompted by a Wall Street Journal article I read by Beth DeCarbo called the Kids need umpires and refs. Fewer people want the job. youth and school sports are facing a severe shortage of referees and umpires, resulting in canceled games, shortened seasons, and overworked officials who are not the best version of themselves because they're stretched across so many games. The primary reason officials quit is not the pay, it's the behavior. Unsurprisingly, of the adults, about 70% of new officials quit within three years. Seven out of 10 within three years, 68% say sportsmanship is getting worse, and nearly 12% report actually being physically assaulted. Now, organizations are responding with better recruiting, mentoring, mental health. But this is a societal problem. And by the way, I don't need a Wall Street Journal article to tell me this. If you have been to, to a little league game, a soccer game, a football, basketball game, you've seen this, you've heard it in the stands. I don't care. recreational league, travel league, public school, private school, Christian school, I've heard this in the stands. So this is not about the societal problem. This is about a church problem, this episode. Because I know Christians who do this all the time, who for whatever reason, feel emboldened to say anything they want to officials, to call them names, to yell at them, to shame them, to challenge them, which is both unloving and shortsighted. Because if that official in that very moment said, you know what, I don't want to deal with this, I quit, the game is over. Is that really what we're after? Look, let me put it this way. The Apostle Paul in, Galatians 5 says this. It's a well known verse. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. All of which pretty much apply to this story. As Christians, do we get to shed the fruit of the Spirit when we go to a sporting event? are we allowed to simply say, well, this is different. This is a subcategory of life over which God is not sovereign, over which the Spirit is not sanctifying me. Jesus said, all the law comes down to love God and love your neighbor at, yourself. And, and then he said, unless of course, you're at your son's baseball game, then let it fly. Well, no, of course he didn't say that. I'm not saying if Christians got this right, the whole problem would be solved, but I bet a significant portion of it would be. Because the truth is, on almost every team there's a Christian family. And in my experience, they're not any better. We have to do better than this. Referees, officials, umpires are, are made in the image of God. They matter full stop. I don't care if they get the call right. They matter. But also, so does everyone in the stand. So do our kids. What are we saying about people, by the way? Is that how we want to be treated? No. When we mess up at work. And by the way, you do mess up at work. When you do, do you want people shouting at you from the break room like, what are you, blind? Why couldn't you get that right? Was that really your best effort? Can you imagine what that would be like? No. And you would never stand for it. You would say, I don't deserve to be treated this way. Well, why does the guy who's umpiring your son's baseball game, why does he deserve that? He doesn't, and we know it. So repentance is in order here. And change. Whatever it takes to get away from the anger we've justified and from the negativity and criticism we we've justified. Actually, this is a great opportunity for Christians to do the opposite, to appreciate umpires and officials, to actually celebrate, to teach our kids to shake their hands and thank them after a game, to bring a Gatorade for the team plus the official, to create a spirit of honor. Not because they get every call right. They're not going to. You don't and I don't. We don't in whatever job we have, but because there are more important things at stake. And. And if you need a more practical reason than that, and I hope you don't, I don't think you do. But if you do, if there are no officials, there are no sports. So what do you really think you're accomplishing one day when your kid is in his or her 30s and they no longer play sports and they look back on their life, they're going to remember all the stupid things you yelled and it's not going to make any sense to them then and it's going to be embarrassing to you. Repent, love, umpires, officials, and all those who help out with youth sports. Honor them, appreciate them, and model love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. Hey, thanks for checking out Wake Up, Look Up. For more content, be sure to visit the Christ Community Chapel app or website cccchapel.com.

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