Sport is littered with illustrations where one member of the team is in the process of being over powered by the clever tactics of the opposite side. Then in a fit of super human endurance team mates come to the rescue by bringing to bear counter measures to retrieve the dire straits of the situation.
Hockey is a classic illustration of this where an attacker beats one or two defenders with clever stick work, but other defenders closes in and stunt the attacking probe. Team mates tactical ploy is to place themselves in a clear position to receive a rescue pass.
More so in the "field of life" where the battle can get even more furious with the tides of drama and "team mates" come to one's aid with succor, comfort, aid, wisdom and practical assistance.
This idea of sacrifice and service in both sport and war was perhaps idealised in photographic form in 1989 when the Australian cricket coach John Buchanan had his team visit Gallipoli on their way to England to defend the Ashes. The cricketers took up the exact positions of the famous 1915 Gallipoli cricket photograph.
We're finding more and more athletes who have put in so much, to achieve top performances, who then make a contribution back into other's lives. Our Well-Being Australia ministry is one of many Missions that are the recipients of such good-will by former athletes and coaches.
Country Town Tours (CTT)
For example, the Well-Being Australia 'Country Town Tour' program - athletes and coaches give freely their time and valuable expertise to young people, as role-models for regional, rural and geographically isolated youth.
These athletes and coaches engage in these outreaches with the hope that the young players will gain insight and become better and more complete persons. They can foresee some of the problems because they have been down that same pathway, and they can hope to prevent the next generation falling into some of the pitfalls while encouraging them to keep going when the path is tough or just plain boring.
They also advise that young Christian athletes who are very keen to share the Gospel of Jesus from a platform of "athletic endeavour" need to do the hard yards in physical training and achieve some success on the sporting field. Otherwise they become a empty gong without substance.
Having travelled the path of slog and pain to achieve in sport, makes their witness real, fair-dinkum and true in life. In such ways, they can genuinely add to the lives of others and help them to become more complete persons.
In this sense of sacrifice and endeavour, Jesus is qualified to speak to our deepest needs with his suffering upon the Cross and if anything if anything, His resurrection is the greatest victory of all.
It is liberating because it is a victory over all falsehoods and all false ways. Roy Masters one of Australia's preeminent sport writers, when I initiated the Australian Sports Ministry in 1982 wrote of this new ministry, that athletes can smell a phony a-mile-off.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at
www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html