Do you think about Jesus when you play?

Both my sister an I have always been involved in some kind of sport growing up, I took a more individualist approach in sports participating in swimming and rockclimbing where as she involved in more team centered sports like rugby and continues to play for Skule and Varsity. As discussed in class there is a sort of heroism that is involved when one works through the pain and overcomes it both for the team as well as an individual merit.  I have witnessed my sister countless of times play rugby injured only to come off the field with more pain, but she scored a try. Or all the times I have taken her to the hospital for concussion and having to continuously check up on her every 3 hours while she slept, but hey that’s rugby for you; no helmets. I completely understand why she does it because I do it to, there is nothing better than working through the pain and reaching the top of a 5.11 wall even if your finger cannot bend for a couple hours and legs are shaking. I do think there is some sort of ecstasy that comes about from pushing yourself harder but I don’t think it has to be necessarily equated with religion

As we saw in class that there is clear evidence between Christianity and sports, juxtaposed with pain and sacrifice, however I think its dangerous to think that one works through the pain only in reference to Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. I’ve never played a sport and thought about Jesus, and I never saw it in that light, until last weeks lecture. Whenever I have participated in sports there was a notion however of challenging one self, growing stronger, building discipline and respect that can be seen as religious, but for someone who is not religious these notion can also just be product of the sport it self that do they not necessarily have to attributed to a specific religion or a religious connotation.  In my own case, sport was seen as a way “out,” not growing up in the best of neighborhoods sports became a way “keeping idle hands busy” as discussed as one of the apologetics of sports.  It was way to keep myself off the streets, keeping my mind and body healthy and instilling work ethic and discipline in school that allowed me be able to come to the University of Toronto . In this way sports for me is not so much a religious experience but an aid in overcoming soci-economic conditions.