An Athlete's Nightmare

I love sports. Absolutely love them. Watching, playing, chatting, and even playing sports video games. Most of my days are consumed by sports in some way shape or form. When I graduate, I want to get a job working in a sports related field. I could tell you the starting lineup and the first five guys off the bench for every single NBA team. My passion for sports is beyond what it probably should be but nevertheless I am obsessed. This is probably what has contributed to my love for shoes.

When it comes to buying new shoes, I am not a big fashion person so I don’t get the new “trendy” things when I shop. The only store that I know that I can get what I want and the only store I end up going to is Dick’s Sporting Goods. They sell just about every type of athletic thing you can imagine: from football helmets, to baseball gloves, to footwear, to dumbbells for lifting. Not only do they sell a variety of things, they sell all the latest and greatest name brand equipment such as Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour.

As I am out looking at shoes and pondering which ones to buy, it seems in my mind that I have three suitors: Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour. And it all depends on what I want. If I want a light shoe that might not have good ankle support but will help me run faster and jump higher, I would go with Adidas. If I want the best looking shoe that is going to make me look better than the rest of the competition, I’m going to choose Under Armour. If I want the best overall quality for a shoe, I’m buying Nike. Each brand has its own characteristics that make it appealing to its audience.

The one thing that athletes fear more than anything else is losing and being a step behind everyone else. Each of these commercials tries to cater to that fear and tell you (the athlete) that with their shoe, you will be at the top of your game and have an edge over your competition. A lot of our society today is based on winning. Not just in the realm of sports. In business, jobs, social life, etc. Nobody likes to lose at anything. We all want to win and we will do whatever it takes to win because quite frankly, losing sucks.

We get so wrapped up in trying to gain an edge at everything that we forget about what we truly should be striving for. Everybody knows about what Jesus says in Matthew 16:25. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it.” We hear it all the time and it has become a cliché but it is so true. There is too much time spent worrying about how we are going to be the best at everything we’re doing that we lose track of the only thing we should be striving to gain. To me, the Kingdom of Heaven is a way better prize than anything we can obtain here on Earth. And according to Jesus, we have to lose in order to win.