I was brought up with a sports-mad father, and therefore as a child, I went along to watch Barnsley F. C. play football and Yorkshire C.C.C. play cricket. I learned to enjoy both sports, mainly because I enjoyed being with my Dad, and I remember the years 1979-1984 with great fondness: watching Ian Botham’s match-winning performance in the Headingley Test against Australia in 1981, savouring the midfield magic of Ronnie Glavin and enjoying seeing Mick McCarthy, a Barnsley lad, make it to the big time. One of my abiding memories of this era is the passion with which fans approach every match or game. Sport is not, for many of them, simply a game…
In 1983, I discovered a new passion, for it was then that I found Jesus Christ as my own Saviour. And it struck me then, and still strikes me now, as odd that the passion seen every week in football grounds and cricket grounds and every other sporting venue is not often seen in churches. I have stood on some football terraces in freezing weather cheering on a team that was never in the top 6 in the country; I have frozen in April at cricket grounds with hardly anyone there, and still there was more passion there than is seen when people come together to worship Almighty God.
As we approach Easter and consider the mind-blowing love God has for us, love which caused Jesus to suffer on the cross for our sins and to embrace suffering for the joy set before Him, let’s put away our British reserve and worship Him unashamedly, with passion and fervour and fire and zeal. Let’s ponder how much He loves us and raise a shout, a cheer, a paean of praise.