Earlier this week at the USC AIA meeting I was asked by Mr. Sylvester to share my Audience of One testimony with the students. I thought why not share it with you as well.
Audience of One is the first principle in Athletes in Action's Principles of faith and sport. The purpose of the principles is to transform sport as an opportunity to worship God and to create a learning experience so that we can participate in sport in a way that honors Him. In Audience of One we look at the story of Elijah and the Prophets of Baal found in 1 Kings 18:20-40. Through this story we learn that God exposes our idols changing our allegiance from 'substitutes' to him. We realize that learning to compete for the ultimate audience transforms sport into worship. Through Audience of One we seek not to be an athlete who is a Christian, but a Christian who is an athlete.
I first heard the message of Audience of One about two years ago and it has had a huge impact on my life.
Here's what I had to say...
Sports was everything growing up. Starting with YMCA basketball, kick & scoop soccer, and little league baseball. Sports was what I did, I loved playing sports I loved competing. Growing up my dad was involved in many of my athletic endeavors, coaching and teaching me in the ways of sport. In some situations I felt the pressure to make my dad proud of my performance, even more so being the coach's son. I was seeking the attention of other's thru my performance on the field. I wanted the approval, popularity, fame, glory, the Wheaties box. My quest for approval can be traced back to the blacktop of recess in elementary school. I wanted to be the ruler of the foursquare gird, the first pick on the kickball diamond, and win the crab walk and sack race on field day. Then you move on to junior high and it's all about the boy or the girl that you have a crush on that's in the stands watching your game. That was a lot of pressure because your performance on the court determined whether you could be boyfriend & girlfriend or not. One air ball or errant pass and you blew it :). But things start getting a little more serious because in high school that boy or girl turns into coaches with clipboards from top 25 programs. And now if you mess up you're definitely not getting asked out for a 4-5 year date at their school. The pressure is intense, the need to be accepted is huge. For me, even though I kept it to myself, I desired that attention. To me an idol became a clap of applause, a pat on the back, a name drop in the newspaper. My idol had become that I was legit, I had made it. I was a small town kid playing on a nationally ranked top 10 club team for soccer. I was big time. I was playing for the approval of others, the glory of Kyle Basil, I was not a servant of Christ.
Going into my freshman year of soccer at the University of Dayton I was redshirted due to coming of a broken leg, so I didn't practice or play at all in my first season/semester. Sophomore year comes around and I'm healthy but not playing, not even making the travel roster. It was hard going home because I would always get asked two questions: 1. How is the team doing? 2. How are you doing? Are you getting to play? I dreaded the second question mainly because I felt like I was letting my parents down. All the time, effort, money they had invested to get me to dream of playing college soccer and I wasn't meeting my end of the bargain. I felt like I was letting them down. I know my parents love me and support me, but it was something that I was beating myself up about. In the fall of my junior year I went to an Athletes in Action meeting where I heard about Audience of One for the first time. I learned that approval had become an idol in my life, a wall between myself and Jesus. I also recognized that God is not going to love me anymore or any less based on my performance, He is going to love me the same no matter what. So it didn't matter whether over the four years of my career if I played two minutes or started and played every second of every game, Jesus still loves me the same. Knowing this made competing in the sport of soccer much more enjoyable.
When I first began playing soccer and baseball one of the best things about playing was the post game snack or treat ticket. I remember the days of finishing a game, lining up to shake hands, and then racing back to the bench or dugout to get in line for the snack/ticket. The best thing was you could always count on the snack being there after the game, the snack is unconditional. The world tells us that recognition and status is everything, that your worth or value is based solely on your performance. There is no margin for error. If you miss the putt, strikeout swinging, drop the baton, you don't deserve the capri sun and orange slices. That's not how God's love for us works. God's love or us is agape, it's unconditional, meaning that even if we double fault, fumble on the goal-line, or put the ball in the back of our own net, God's still going to be there on the sidelines with a big smile on his face, serving out snacks.
laughter and shouts of joy
