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NFL football coach Vince Lombardi, known for his quotes about the importance of wining, once quipped “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?” With pressure like this on individuals (and athletes in particular) to be successful, is it any surprise that many turn to illegal performance enhancing drugs to improve their abilities? What does God think about using such “performance enhancers”? First we need to understand what steroids are, and the potential risks stemming from their use.
Pressure to succeed
Alex Rodriguez, signed to a ten year, $252million contract with the New York Yankees, admitted in February 2009 that he took steroids while he was with the Texas Rangers. During a news conference, he implicitly admitted to lying in a 2007 CBS 60 Minutes
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Heroes are, generally speaking, successful. And since there is tremendous pressure for athletes to succeed, they may be tempted to turn to banned substances such as anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) to enhance their performance. Abusing AAS is known to potentially cause many negative side effects such as2:
AAS can also be addictive. Given all of these health risks, it’s surprising to hear when famous athletes get caught using steroids. Besides being potentially quite harmful, use of these drugs is also banned in professional sports.
Made in God’s image
As Christians, we should be concerned with taking care of our bodies. Paul asks rhetorically “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” then follows up with an answer: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) We shouldn’t give in to shortcuts in a misguided attempt to “get ahead.” Jesus once asked the crowd that gathered to hear him speak: “What good is it for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul?” (Mark 8:36, TNIV) Therefore, we should seek to avoid anything which causes our body harm.
Christians should care about our health because God has entrusted our bodies to us to use in service of Him. Don’t be tempted to resort to dangerous measures to try to live up to secular society’s aspirations of how you should look.
The apostle Paul struggled with a “thorn in [his] flesh.” When he appealed to God in prayer, he was told “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” leading Paul to say “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) Remember that “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1 Corinthians 1:27) So while we should be willing to work hard to improve ourselves, we should not feel ashamed at our weakness, because God will still work through us if we are willing to let Him.
Our response
How are we to respond when Christian friends seek their own glory at the expense of their health? Paul advises us that “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.” (Romans 15:1) Instead of responding in judgment, we should respond by compassionately attempting to guide our friends back to a healthy conception of themselves, and remind them of how God sees them.
The secular concept of “winning is everything” shouldn’t be allowed to infiltrate our thinking. Winning is not, as popular wisdom might suggest, everything. Remember the Vince Lombardi quote from the beginning of the article? “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?” Shortly before he died, Lombardi recanted, saying “I wish I’d never said it. I meant the effort. I sure didn’t mean for people to crush human values and morality.”3
Worshiping God in spirit and truth, trusting in Him with our very lives, and seeking to honor Him for who He is and what He has done, is everything in life, not winning. And everything else we should leave up to Him. You may never become a baseball player with a multi-million dollar salary. But instead you will receive a much higher reward: Hearing your God say “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21)
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1Ronald Blum, “A-Rod admits using performance-enhancing drugs,” Associated Press, n.p. Cited 16 February 2009. Online: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ga08p3lsWdla0TRU6ElMmpEEN3LgD968K6RG1
2National Institute on Drug Abuse, “NIDA InfoFacts: Steroids (Anabolic-Androgenic)” n.p. Cited 16 February 2009. Online: http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/steroids.html
3John Churdar, “The Need for Good Sportsmanship,” BJU Press, n.p. Cited 19 February 2009. Online: http://www.bjupress.com/resources/articles/balance/need-for-good-sportsmanship.php
Tags: baseball, Bible, darren hewer, God, health, hero, LIFE, Men, spiritual growth, sports, steroids, vince lombardi
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