Where are our priorities?

While I love watching well played sporting events, I can't help wondering, when there are so many problems all around us that require our utmost attention, why do we put so much time, money, and energy into sports? Yes, learning to excel in sports can teach many good life lessons like work ethic, concentration, patience, perseverance, self-motivation, self-responsibility, and physical fitness, but it seems ridiculous how much importance, energy, and money we put into these endeavors. I have been an athlete my whole life. I’ve been playing tennis for over 40 years and teaching the sport for 35 years so I am not some academic nerd wondering these things, I know of what I’m talking.

When you combine the time, money, and energy of youth sports, high school, college, and professional sports, the total amount of energy expended is astronomical. How many hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of hours do we spend annually thinking about, training, traveling, playing, and watching sports? How many billions of dollars are spent? Is it really worth that much of an investment? Aren’t there better, more efficient, and important ways to spend our limited resources and energy? Is our emphasis on sports distracting us from more important priorities?

With the seemingly overwhelming problems that we face as a society such as hunger, poverty, racism, economic turmoil, greed, inadequate and overly expensive healthcare, terrorism, and a deteriorating environment, it’s natural to want to distract ourselves with simpler, more pleasant and enjoyable activities. But just think what we could accomplish if we used even a quarter of that time, money, and energy that we spend on sports working to solve our relentless problems. What a world it would be.

One of the reasons that people want to ignore or look the other way at these problem areas is that they feel there is no “solution,” there's nothing they can do. It’s just the way it is and how it will forever be. But there is a solution. Find it at www.evolutionaryeducation.com. On this Easter Sunday it would be good to ask, "What would Jesus do with his time, money, and energy?"