FAST Blast: Derek Redmond’s extraordinary Olympic story

• July-August 2021

THE FOLLOWING ESSAY launched this faith-and-sports blog in August 2012, during the London Olympics. Nine years later, we’ve entered a COVID Olympic time warp — in apparently unprecedented fashion, the Olympic Games are occurring in an odd-numbered year.

Welcome to the 2020 + 2021 Tokyo Olympics!

I hope you enjoy the new version of this embryonic classic from A Slow Life in the FAST Lane — strap in for a roller-coaster Summer Olympics reminiscence.

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First Post — August 2012
Second Post: Revised — August 2016
Revised + Updated: Third Post — July-August 2021

PREGAME TALK — Welcome to A Slow Life in the FAST Lane. The stars of this blog, faith and sports, need no introduction. And for those who think, “I’m not a person of faith and I’m definitely not religious” — that is perhaps an understandable sentiment, but think again!

Consider these dictionary definitions: Religion is “something of overwhelming importance to a person: football is his religion.” Furthermore: Religion is “something a person believes in devotedly” — and aren’t we all devoted to someone and/or something?

Once more, welcome — read, vote, comment as you wish — and play ball!

Bruce William Deckert

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THREE DECADES LATER, a riveting Olympic story still resonates.

This story echoes like a starter’s gun across the tracks and fields of time, signaling dreams deferred and shattered — and then, after the heartbreak, dreams somehow restored and reborn.

This story pulsates with an afflicted runner’s energy, reverberates with raw emotion, celebrates the never-give-up Olympic ethos.

This is the true-life tale of British track star Derek Redmond.

• The Setting — 1992 Barcelona Olympics
• The Event — 400-meter dash: semifinal
• The Backstory — Redmond’s career was beset by Achilles tendon injuries and surgeries, and at the Beijing Olympics in 1988 a tendon injury forced him to withdraw moments before his first race … four long years later, some considered the British sprinter a medal favorite

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THE TV COVERAGE leading up to Redmond’s 1992 semifinal reminds viewers how he missed the ’88 Games and documents how hard he trained to return to Olympic glory.

Redmond starts strong in this race — but after about 150 meters injury strikes again, this time a torn right hamstring. Devastated, he kneels on the track. When medical staff come to him, he decides to keep going. Rising to his feet, he begins to hobble along … and hobble is the operative word.

Redmond describes his motivation this way: “The thought that went through my mind — as crazy as it sounds now — was: I can still catch them … I just remember thinking to myself: I’m not going to stop — I’m going to finish this race.”

What happens next is an indelible Olympic moment.

A man descends from the stands to the track and, getting past security, chases Redmond from behind. A crazed spectator, perhaps? The man catches up with the limping sprinter and puts his arm around Redmond’s shoulder.

The man is Derek’s Dad.

“The old man went to put his arms around me,” Derek says, “and I was just about to try and push him off because I thought it was someone else — I didn’t see him, he sort of jogged from behind. And he said, ‘Look, you don’t need to do this. You can stop now, you haven’t got nothing to prove.’ And I said, ‘Oh, I have — now get me back into Lane 5. I want to finish.’”

Jim Redmond wants his son to stop in case he’s able to recover and compete in the upcoming 4×400-meter relay for the British team that won gold at the 1991 World Championships. Nonetheless, Derek is determined to complete the course, so his Dad says, “Well then, we’re going to finish this together.”

Derek continues his strange and moving race — at a walking pace now, with his Dad’s arm draped around him, and vice versa.

As they walk around the track together, Derek is overcome by the emotion of the moment and his tears flow freely. He sobs at intervals, leaning on his Dad’s shoulder.

“You just knew how destroyed he was and just how much that race meant to him,” says Sally Gunnell, the British women’s team captain in 1992 who won gold in the 400-meter hurdles. “It’s … a picture that just stays in your mind forever.”

Meanwhile 65,000 fans stand and applaud — and some weep along with Derek. When father and son reach the cusp of the finish line, Dad releases his hold and Derek crosses the line solo.

In a postrace interview, Jim Redmond says, “He had to finish, and I was there to help him finish. … We started his career together, and I think we should finish it together.”

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A STANDING OVATION — why such rousing applause for an injured athlete who won neither a race nor a medal? The answer, I believe, is simple: This story reflects the deep yearning of the human heart.

Three decades ago, I was awestruck at the glimpse Derek Redmond’s story gives into the message of the Christian view of reality.

Yes, I grew up in the Church, and I’m endeavoring to persevere in the Church. As someone who subscribes to the historic Christian faith, while aiming to avoid its caricatures and counterfeits, I believe there are solid reasons why a genuine biblical worldview makes all the sense in the world.

Yet I also continue to wrestle with questions — by the way, I reckon I’d have questions whatever worldview I embraced — and one of them is the timeless query that’s older than Mount Olympus: What is the meaning of life?

Naturally, the world’s various philosophies, faiths and worldviews all give an answer, and so do people who consider themselves nonreligious — and while everyone is at it, could someone also answer the mystifying question of how on earth the Yankees lost to the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS? No MLB team had ever surrendered a 3-0 series lead before. It still seems surreal — are we sure it actually happened?

But I digress … let’s return to the standing ovation for Derek and his Dad: Do the messages of other worldviews elicit such a deep human response?

Let’s imagine a couple of parallel-universe versions of Derek Redmond’s story.

After his hamstring snapped, what if Derek had sat on the track and penned a poem about the meaninglessness of life, or cursed his fate, or smiled in the face of his misfortune — and then hobbled into the tunnel under the stadium, never to be seen again?

Spectators might have considered him stoic or quasi-heroic — but would they have been moved to stand and applaud with abandon? If every human being departs into nothingness, as atheism proclaims, is the human heart moved to high praise?

Not exactly … more literally, not even close.

What if Derek had sat on the track, accepted his suffering bravely, and disappeared into the stadium tunnel, and then another sprinter emerged from the tunnel? But an announcement was made that this new sprinter was Derek in another form. And this occurred over and over again.

Spectators might have been heartened about Derek’s ever-new opportunity to run the race. Yet do pantheistic religions, such as Hinduism, and eclectic New Age belief systems — with their claim of reincarnation and apparent loss of personality — provide a unique individual narrative that moves people to weep openly at a father’s intervention?

Perhaps I can only guess at your answer to this query, but I can communicate my answer readily: No, pantheism doesn’t inspire our hearts to praise or commendation … far from it.

What of the Christian worldview — does it furnish a framework for a resounding ovation as a father’s heart and mind and feet respond to his child’s pain?

The parable of the prodigal wild child gives us more than an inkling.

In the incarnation, God enters the arena of human history, coming alongside hurting human beings and offering to guide us home before it gets too dark. In the crucifixion, Jesus of Nazareth shares the suffering of humans with all their wounds and heartache — enduring heart (and hamstring) replacement surgery, apparently sans anesthesia. In the resurrection, Jesus achieves and realizes brand-new life — athletically and otherwise — on the other side of the finish line called death.

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THE FOLLOWING GEM is attributed to British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge by numerous sources:

“Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us — and the art of life is to get the message.”

This statement resonates with me. True, Derek Redmond’s Olympic moment doesn’t answer all my questions about the meaning of life and life’s many messages, but it does offer a clue, some athletic forensic evidence in the case of a lifetime — a case about which we all will make a decision.

Do you think God speaks through Derek Redmond’s Olympic heartbreak and parental redemption? Or do you believe such occurrences are unlikely or impossible? Does a Creator exist, and does He speak to people through the world of sports?

This blog aims to investigate such questions — and you are invited to join me on this journey to discover the answers that can be found at the intersection of faith and sports.

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P.S. — I’ve heard a few observers essentially dismiss Derek Redmond’s actions in Barcelona as melodramatic and attention-seeking. I’ve watched the video more than once, and I don’t see an act. For my money, among the Olympic Games I’ve witnessed, his story is the signature moment in Olympic history.

The signature accomplishment in Olympic history, in my book, is the remarkable four-gold-medal triumph of black U.S. star Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in racist-driven Nazi Germany.

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• Related Post — Derek Redmond’s Olympic heartbreak and the problem of suffering

Information and quotes from various media outlets and YouTube were used in this article

© Bruce William Deckert 2012-2021

FAST Blast: Seeking hope in face of COVID — reflecting on unprecedented virus

• Posted — 31 January 2021

A year ago, when 2020 began, who could have predicted that a year later facemasks would be an ongoing medical fashion accessory in response to a global pandemic?

This blog post is a revised and updated version of an essay I first published in Today Magazine, the news vehicle I produce as publisher and editor-in-chief. Today Magazine covers the heart of Connecticut’s Farmington Valley and seeks to record the Valley’s underreported upside. — Bruce William Deckert

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UNPRECEDENTED — someone I know says he first heard this word utilized to describe the coronavirus crisis while volunteering at a social-service initiative in Hartford, Connecticut.

“It’s unprecedented,” said an unemployed man about the cancellation of the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament and the cessation of the NBA and NHL seasons — but of course the pandemic halted more than sports. Large public gatherings stopped. Simple courtesies like handshakes and in-person conversations were replaced by once-unfamiliar terms — social distancing and Zoom calls. Schools and businesses closed nationwide.

Medical experts and government officials saw these drastic measures as the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 … another unknown term until 2020.

In media reports and in emails from business and civic leaders, the word unprecedented was cited over and over again. The commerce shutdown led to record layoffs — so the above man has more company. Yet while the government’s response to this medical crisis has been unprecedented, the loss suffered by many families isn’t new.

Nearly 440,000 Americans have died of the virus, according to the New York Times, and 2.2 million worldwide. Such loss is a shared human reality — just ask someone who has endured 9/11 or the Vietnam War or the Holocaust … or the death of any loved one.

The world has likewise seen medical crises before: 50 million people worldwide died in the 1918-19 flu pandemic, per the CDC.

Earlier in the COVID shutdown, I took a neighborhood walk that revealed a time-honored antidote to such trauma, written in rainbow chalk that spanned a suburban Farmington Valley roadway: BE KIND. STAY POSITIVE. … Love each other.

From the chalk of children to God’s ears.

© Bruce William Deckert 2021

• Today Magazine January Issue: Fame and the Forrest Gump Effect

FAST Blast: Musings on sports + marriage • Part 3

January 2019

• Musings on sports and marriage • Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3

PARENTS INTRODUCE THEIR CHILDREN TO LIFE, and then introduce their children to the concept of marriage.

All spouses and parents bring both upside and downside to their marriages and child-rearing. There’s one simple reason for this: Every human being is comprised of upside and downside. As far as I can tell, this is as evident as the New England Patriots’ 5-5 record in the Super Bowl.

This isn’t an excuse for not doing all you can to prevent your downside from damaging others. But no one I know of has been able to consistently elude this paradoxical reality of human nature.

Yes, we’re better off when we grow out of bad habits and into good habits. And certainly, we all possess gifts and skills. Yet since none of us is exactly perfect, it appears that one of the habits we all need to cultivate — on an ongoing basis — is forgiveness.

Easy? No. But as difficult as forgiveness is, the relationship gurus typically agree: Forgiveness unlocks the gates that bar our own hearts while serving as the foundation for strong marriages and families.

From the amazing story of Nelson Mandela’s courageous work to end apartheid in South Africa, to NBA title-winning coach Rudy Tomjanovich in the aftermath of The Punch, to a dying cry of a traveling first-century rabbi on a Roman cross — “Father, forgive them” — there are countless examples of the wisdom and power of forgiveness.

Some Jackson Browne lyrics resonate:

Don’t you want to be there?
Don’t you want to cry when you see how far
You’ve got to go
To be where forgiveness rules instead of where you are?
Don’t you want to be there?
Don’t you want to know
Where the grace and simple truth of childhood go?
Don’t you want to be there when the trumpets blow?
— from “Don’t You Want To Be There”

But I digress … let’s return to this: Parents introduce children to life and then to the concept of marriage, whether by their presence or absence — or both. In intact families, parents who are present daily in their children’s lives can sometimes be absent or hurtful emotionally and otherwise. Cue the need for the difficult task of forgiveness.

At other times these same parents can be caring and constructive. Cue the need to be thankful.

Again, we need to make every effort to care, yet despite our best efforts we fall short. It has been said that every family is a broken family. This rings true, given the upside-and-downside reality of the human condition.

Of course, some families are more broken than others. I experienced the conventional definition of a broken family: My parents divorced when I was in eighth grade. They split up for the final time when I was in sixth grade, but they had separated for the first time a half-dozen years earlier when I was in kindergarten. Each time, my Dad literally and physically abandoned my Mom and younger brother and me.

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MY DAD WAS A BIG-TIME SPORTS FAN. New Jersey born and bred, he watched the Yankees win multiple championships as he moved from adolescence into adulthood. He witnessed the wreckage of the Mets’ early years and their first World Series title in 1969 — the so-called Miracle Mets.

Meanwhile, he shipwrecked his marriage: an anti-miracle.

Despite his tragic choices, my Dad showed that parents who are absent from the home can be present in their children’s lives.

My Mom didn’t follow pro sports but was a big-time fan of me and my brother as we played sports, along with my Dad. She was also a fan of my Dad, extending allegiance even after he betrayed her via an affair — but after she forgave him and took him back, he broke his vows again.

Sports betrayals surely occur. A beloved player becomes a free agent and high-tails it out of town. A freak twist of fate costs a squad a title. A team leaves a city for greener financial pastures.

One example: The NFL’s Browns unexpectedly left Cleveland after the 1995 season and became the Baltimore Ravens. Per Cleveland.com: “The love affair between the Browns and their fans generated a strong bond … all of the other disappointments associated with Cleveland sports combined could not reach the magnitude of betrayal and heartache suffered [by Browns fans after the team’s departure].”

Clearly, the betrayal my Mom suffered was far worse.

As an adult, occasionally I think about my Dad celebrating the Mets’ 1969 championship in the same month when he caused my Mom and my family heart-wrenching grief — such a painful and incongruous circumstance — and I wonder why I don’t hate sports.

I know, this isn’t exactly a fair association: Sports didn’t cause my Dad to leave us, though I can see in the experience of my heart how we human beings are capable of making knee-jerk connections that aren’t always accurate or fair.

Once more, cue the need for forgiveness.

Yes, my Dad caused me and my family tremendous pain. Yet my Dad also gave me tremendous encouragement about my sports and academics. Over the years, teachers and friends and professors encouraged me to keep writing — yet my Dad stands out most in that arena.

Influenced by my Dad, I did grow up a sports fan — I’ve also witnessed numerous World Series titles by the Yankees, and one by the Mets in 1986. I wound up serving as an editor at ESPN .com and ESPN Digital Media for 15-plus years. But ironically, by the time I reached ESPN I had stopped following pro sports religiously in favor of cheering for my son’s and daughter’s teams and investing in their success as student-athletes.

My Dad once instigated a literal investment for my brother’s basketball team: Believing the squad’s uniforms at the cash-strapped Christian school had become too ratty, my Dad handed a hat around at a home game to raise money for new duds.

Antics like that — along with his propensity for attempting to persuade certain referees of their incompetence — almost got him banned from the home gym. But my brother’s coach appreciated the support and returned it by taking this stand: He said his team wouldn’t take the court if Mr. Deckert was banned.

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THE MARRIAGE GURUS TELL US that love is a decision. The first person I heard utter this phrase? My Mom.

Author and social activist Shane Claiborne puts it this way: “The most radical thing that anyone can do is to choose to love those around them — again, and again, and again.”

For couples, true love is able to deepen when they keep choosing to love each other and keep investing in their marriages. As author Fawn Weaver says: “Happily ever after is not a fairy tale — it’s a choice.” Choosing the alternative keeps love from growing as surely as covering a garden with a tarp.

“A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers” — so said Ruth Bell Graham. While forgiveness is hard, it is exquisite fertilizer in the garden of marriage and friendship.

My Mom attributed her ability to forgive my Dad to the God of the universe. She didn’t cave to bitterness. Until the day she died of cancer in 2009 — my Dad had died nearly three decades before, in 1991 — she maintained faith in the traveling rabbi mentioned above, counting on Jesus of Nazareth as the crucified-and-risen One whose forgiveness models and informs and empowers our forgiveness of others.

When I was in college, as I recall, my Mom shared that when my Dad first betrayed her in the fall of 1969, he told her, “I never loved you.”

Over the years, as I’ve reflected on his heartbreaking comment, I have reasonably concluded that my Dad was really saying this: He didn’t know what love is — he failed to genuinely understand what true love is. He thought he knew. Toward the end of his life, he expressed remorse over his horrible misjudgment.

Cue the need for forgiveness.

This is the third in a series of blog posts that consider the relationship between marriage and sports

— Bruce William Deckert © 2019

FAST Blast: Musings on sports + marriage • Part 2

December 2018

• Musings on sports and marriage • Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3

MARRIAGE, LIKE SPORTS, IS A TEAM EFFORT — requiring the care and commitment of two people with skills and idiosyncrasies, strengths and weaknesses, gifts and imperfections.

As with every team, a marriage is impacted by both the blunders and triumphs of the team members.

After reading the previous two paragraphs, you might be thinking: Sure, but tell me something I don’t already know. Actually, I might not be able to tell you something you don’t already know … but I do want to relay what I believe about marriage, for better or worse.

Let’s extend the sports-and-marriage metaphor — the marriage enterprise at its best is like scoring a flurry of 3-pointers, or recording a pivotal goal, or hitting a home run, or making a key defensive play or a huge save. At times like these, life is good and the sun shines bright and an out-and-back training run seems downhill both ways for both spouses.

At its worst, the team effort of marriage is like a painful injury — caused by a teammate during practice — or the extreme training teammates endure to prepare for the next game or the next season, like running ladders or suicide sprints … or fill in the blank with the severe workouts your coach devised.

One of my daughter’s soccer teams would run 200-yard sprints as a preseason workout — 20 consecutive 200-yard sprints. Yes, 20 200s.

One of my son’s soccer teams would run up an old ski hill. When I asked him how fast the coach expected his players to go, he said the intensity of the workout wasn’t in how fast they were moving (the hill was extremely steep) but in simply keeping their legs going. The next time I ran up a hill, my aching legs and lungs reminded me how true that is.

One of my basketball coaches had us run double suicide sprints. By the time you were done running the first one, your lungs felt like fire and your legs felt like a blend of lead and cooked spaghetti — paradoxical, I know — and then you had to keep going at full speed through a second suicide.

Well, I suppose you didn’t have to — but because of your dedication to the team, you did. You ran the sprints and felt the fire in your lungs and the distress in your legs with (and for) your teammates. This commitment that teammates make to each other in the crucible of training is comparable to the commitment couples make to each other when their marriage goes through a crucible, for however short or long.

Persevering together through the training of marriage makes it possible for a man and a woman to share the joy of the triumphs that follow.

To say there are many views of life and marriage is like saying there are many claims about financial investments or climate change or the favorite to win the next NBA championship. The question is, which view is true?

Every year, the Christian worldview celebrates Christmas as the day when Jesus of Nazareth entered the arena of human history to endure intense training for the sake of His bride. I pray that we find inspiration and strength in His example and His reality as we live out our marriages and other relationships.

This is the second in a series of blog posts that consider the relationship between marriage and sports

— Bruce William Deckert © 2018

FAST Blast: Musings on sports + marriage • Part 1

November 2018

• Musings on sports and marriage • Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3

THE REALM OF MARRIAGE and the world of sports have much in common. If you’re not sure about that statement, read on and see if you agree.

My wife and I both played sports as we grew up. I focused on basketball with some success, and she was a standout soccer player. Our son and daughter also played sports while participating in other worthwhile pursuits, and it’s safe to say they surpassed our accomplishments.

Our son was all-conference in soccer and baseball in high school, and our daughter was an All-American in Division III college soccer. Pardon me for indulging in a proud-of-my-son-and-daughter Dad moment — mea culpa.

All those who’ve played on a team have likely considered the helpful metaphors sports can lend on life’s journey. Let’s look at how the metaphors and lessons of sports apply to marriage.

One classic sports cliché refers to “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” In marriage, a husband and wife commit to each other “for better or worse … until death do us part” — the thrill and the agony, indeed.

Winning is the objective of sports — at least, the most visible objective. There are other intangible aims, such as learning life skills and developing vital habits. But winning in sports is, yes, thrilling. You’re on top of the mountain and on top of the world. Yet for most teams, defeat also occurs often enough. Marriage is in the same ballpark — a blend of wins and losses, for better or worse — sometimes on top of the mountain, sometimes down in the trenches.

All the wisest marriage gurus I know say commitment is the foundation of marriage, the fuel that moves a couple through the ups and downs, the wins and losses.

The romance can come and go, the emotions can ebb and flow, the connection and chemistry can head south … but the commitment to love your spouse is the bedrock. This is comparable, it seems, to the commitment teammates make to each other, though the marriage commitment goes beyond because it’s a lifetime pledge — certainly, lifelong devotion is the view of marriage presented by the Christian worldview.

I grew up in the Church, and while I’ve wrestled with what the Christian worldview means in the context of other faiths and philosophies, I see an inescapable conclusion in the midst of my questions and uncertainties: The best philosophy, faith or worldview to embrace is the one that’s true. If Jesus of Nazareth truly is the Son of God and Son of Man — and the risen King of the new creation — He is the absolute difference-maker. And He defines life and marriage.

To utilize another sports metaphor, He is the owner of the franchise. He calls the shots … while giving every team member freedom to make decisions for or against His management desires.

Jesus’ desire for marriage, as expressed in the Gospels, is as clear as the goals on a soccer field:

“In the beginning the Creator made people male and female, and God said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife, and the two will become one.’ So they are no longer two, but one. No human being must separate, then, what God has joined together.”

This is the first in a planned series of blog posts that consider the relationship between marriage and sports

— Bruce William Deckert © 2018

FAST Blast: Best Player-Coach Ever — Part 3

Related Posts
• Best Player-Coach Ever?
• Best Player-Coach Ever — Part 2

A condensed version of this post appeared on Sports Spectrum

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THE PLAYER-COACH may be on the endangered species list — the giant panda of the sports world — or maybe not. But such a creature is a rarity in sports history.

For the uninitiated, let’s define terms: A player-coach holds both playing and coaching duties for a sports team at the same time.

Two of the most noteworthy player-coaches are Hall of Famers Bill Russell and Frank Chance. Two previous blog posts (see the links above) addressed some of their accomplishments in light of this question: Who is the best player-coach ever? Let’s explore this topic further.

Chance won two World Series with the Chicago Cubs as a player-manager, baseball’s version of player-coach, and Russell won 11 NBA titles with the Boston Celtics, including two as a player-coach.

Chance’s nickname was the “Peerless Leader” — and Hall of Fame manager John McGraw was among those who praised Chance for his leadership: “He was a great player … but in addition he was a great leader because he asked no man to take any chance that he would not take himself and because he had the power to instill enthusiasm even in a losing cause.”

A previous blog post noted and discussed the “asked no man to take any chance” facet of McGraw’s quote, but in that post I didn’t include the segment of the quote italicized above.

The gist of my previous post is this: Player-coaches can take such chances because they’re actually on the field, competing in games and in practices, unlike conventional coaches. In light of this, is Jesus of Nazareth the best player-coach ever?

Jesus didn’t sit comfortably in the owner’s luxury box or stay on the sidelines in the coach’s zone, but instead entered the fray … becoming a player-coach via the incarnation in the most profound way, even running suicide sprints with us.

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Let’s examine the italicized part of John McGraw’s quote on Frank Chance — “he was a great leader … because he had the power to instill enthusiasm even in a losing cause.”

Good Friday was a losing cause for Jesus of Nazareth — or so it seemed to His friends and disciples.

His followers affirm that Jesus is the ultimate “Peerless Leader” … yet the irony is that his leadership didn’t inspire or instill enthusiasm on that darkest day. In fact, before He was arrested and executed, his disciples fled, leaving Him alone — although several followers, mostly courageous women, did show up to witness His death.

Yet the New Testament declares that Good Friday was the prelude to Easter Sunday — and the power of Jesus’ resurrection instilled such amazing enthusiasm in the wake of Friday’s losing cause that the Church remains inspired here in the 21st century. Further, Easter has paved the way for the decisive new-creation start that humans yearn for.

Here’s a song lyric that reflects the sentiment of Jesus’ followers — “on that awful tree, that’s where our celebration starts for eternity.”

If you’re one of those followers, you might be musing in awe at the wonder of Easter, moved to gratitude at the cost and worth of God’s intervention on behalf of the human race.

If you’re an agnostic or atheist, or simply a skeptic, you might be musing in a stew of incredulity: What on earth are you talking about — a dead man coming back to life? Nonsense!

I have numerous questions about life and faith and the Christian worldview. But as far as I can see, every worldview has nonsensical elements that are open to question.

Atheists believe the cosmos came about by chance, apart from a Creator … so the design and order we observe in the universe is merely random … and thus the uniqueness that makes human beings human also occurred by sheer chance.

Doesn’t this sound like nonsense? Or at least questionable?

Many pantheists, including Hindus and some New Age mystics, believe in reincarnation — that human beings, depending on their karma, are recycled after death as other life forms.

This also sounds like nonsense. Doesn’t it? At the very least, it’s open to debate.

By the way, I’m attempting to look at these worldview issues as fairly as possible. The multiple chances offered by reincarnation certainly sound appealing, and I’ve felt atheistic often enough — which means I’ve felt often enough that God isn’t there.

Paradoxically, that puts me in good biblical company with psalmists, prophets and the like. Still, to take the next step — or make the next leap — and embrace atheism, asserting dogmatically that a Creator doesn’t exist, flies in the face of ample intelligent-design evidence.

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Pick any faith or philosophy or worldview, and we can pick out an aspect of it that is — or seems to be — nonsense. Across the board, it appears to me, each system has nonsensical notions.

The question is this: Which version of nonsense is actually true?

Let’s agree on this: People don’t universally agree on the answer to the ultimate truth question. Likewise, not everyone agrees on the remedy for the human condition, yet virtually all honest observers acknowledge that something is askew with human beings. True, everyone has the capacity for heroic good … but also for horrific bad. And between the two extremes we have myriad rough edges.

Human history bears this out over and over again — and so do countless songs.

Look at these lyrics:

From “I Go Blind” — sung by Hootie & The Blowfish
In the morning I get up
And I try to feel alive, but I can’t.
I don’t know what it is,
Something in me just won’t give me a chance.

From “Bring Me To Life” — sung by Evanescence
Wake me up inside — wake me up inside.
Call my name and save me from the dark.
Bid my blood to run before I come undone.
Save me from the nothing I’ve become.

From “Be My Escape” — sung by Relient K
I gotta get outta here,
I’m stuck inside this rut that I fell into by mistake.
I gotta get outta here,
And I’m begging you, I’m begging you, I’m begging you to be my escape.

From “Broken” — sung by Lifehouse
I am damaged at best
Like you’ve already figured out.
I’m falling apart, I’m barely breathing
With a broken heart that’s still beating.

From “Fix You” — sung by Coldplay
When you try your best, but you don’t succeed.
When you get what you want but not what you need.
When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep,
Stuck in reverse.
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace.
When you love someone but it goes to waste,
Could it be worse?
Lights will guide you home and ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you.

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The broken human condition — including a broken heart — that needs to be fixed … described by five songs that have enjoyed abundant radio circulation in the 20th and 21st centuries.

These songs resonate with older songs and letters — penned in the first century and the centuries prior — that have likewise enjoyed wide circulation. Yes, the Old and New Testament Scriptures and modern songwriters describe the human condition in similar fashion.

The Scriptures, of course, identify the remedy as the One who is both the fix and the Fixer — Jesus of Nazareth. As the best player-coach ever, He is on our side and by our side and in our side.

Yes, in our side — the place in the body where the heart is located, for the human heart is the crux of the issue.

Soccer manager Pep Guardiola coached Lionel Messi, arguably the world’s best player, at Barcelona. After giving a fellow coach advice about managing a team, Guardiola started to walk away, but then turned around and added, “By the way, get a Messi in your side.”

Yes, side is soccer-speak for team, yet the human-body definition of side dovetails with a one-Word revision of Guardiola’s quote: “By the way, get a Jesus in your side.”

For He is the only One who can mend the mess of the human heart, per the New Testament.

If today’s songwriters and the Scriptures are right about the necessity of a fix for the human condition, arguably the most crucial question facing each of us is this: Who will I enlist as the player-coach to fix my side?

© Bruce William Deckert 2018

FAST Blast: Best Player-Coach Ever — Part 2

• Related Post: Best Player-Coach Ever — Bill Russell or First-Century Superstar?

Player-Coach (n) — a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties

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BASED ON MY RESEARCH — and I admit it hasn’t been exhaustive — two Hall of Famers, Frank Chance and Bill Russell, share the honor of being the most successful player-coach in sports history, using the yardstick of championships won.

Russell claimed two NBA championships as a player-coach in 1968 and 1969. Before that, he collected nine other titles as a player. His 11 championships, all with the Boston Celtics, are the most in NBA history.

Chance won two World Series with the Chicago Cubs, in 1907 and 1908, as a player-manager (baseball’s version of player-coach).

Hall of Fame manager John McGraw had high praise for Chance: “He was a great player — I think one of the best first basemen ever in the game — but in addition he was a great leader, because he asked no man to take any chance that he would not take himself.”

Chance’s nickname — “Peerless Leader” — reflected McGraw’s sentiment.

Here’s an obscure fact for your next trivia contest: Chance first signed with the Chicago Orphans baseball franchise … which became the Chicago Cubs starting with the 1903 season.

(BTW, my source for the quote and info is the National Baseball Hall of Fame website.)

Let’s examine three elements of this intel in light of a first-century superstar who is arguably the best player-coach ever — Jesus of Nazareth.

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FIRST, MCGRAW ASSERTED that Chance was “a great leader because he asked no man to take any chance that he would not take himself.” This is the quintessential domain of the player-coach: By definition, regular coaches can’t take the chances their players take — after all, they’re not playing anymore, they’re coaching.

A player-coach, however, is able to take those chances. And that’s exactly what Jesus did.

The foundation of the Christian faith is that Jesus was (and is) God incarnate, the ultimate player-coach who infiltrated the stadium of human history and directly engaged the fracas on the field. Stay in the stands and merely watch? No way — not for this player-coach.

Second, Chance was called the “Peerless Leader.”

The dictionary defines peerless as “unequaled, unrivaled, matchless, incomparable” — actually, that’s from two online dictionaries, but I digress.

Based on the Christian worldview, only one Person can lay claim to the term peerless: Yes, you guessed it — the only incarnate, crucified and risen Player-Coach.

Third, until I researched Frank Chance for this blog post, I didn’t realize that the Chicago Cubs were originally known as the Chicago Orphans.

The Orphans … what a fitting team name in the context of this discussion of the Peerless Player-Coach!

The moving play “Orphans” explores the theme that human beings are, universally, broken orphans looking for home. The Christian faith offers the antidote: Jesus came to seek orphans and give them a forever residence with their Creator, the Father all broken orphans long for.

The song “Name” — by the Goo Goo Dolls — describes the predicament of orphans:

All the dreams you never thought you’d lose
Got tossed along the way.
… And now we’re grown-up orphans
Who never knew their names.
We don’t belong to no one, that’s a shame.

Meanwhile, the song “King Of Hearts” — by Randy Stonehill — describes the predicament and the remedy:

All alone, drifting wild,
Like a ship that’s lost out on the ocean.
Everyone’s a homeless child
And it’s not hard to understand
Why we need a Father’s hand.
… You’re just running in circles
Till you reach out your hand to the King of hearts.

Another song — the Michael Kelly Blanchard classic “There is Still a King of Hearts” — likewise speaks to the theme of our orphaned brokenness and our need for the true love that is found ultimately in the true King of hearts:

There is still a King of hearts, ruler of our shattered realms.
Though our kingdoms come apart, and the fault is in ourselves.
There is still some royalty haunting our dark ruins of soul.
One whose priceless poverty shames us with all our hoards of gold.
… With His love the lost are saved from self-dungeons so dark and cruel.
Oh Jesus, closer than the air,
Welcomed visitor to flesh.
Turn this my castle grim and bare
To Your Spirit’s home of rest.
May Your presence bless.

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WE’VE CONTEMPLATED the striking pre-Cubs name of Frank Chance’s team — the Chicago Orphans.

What about his name? Frank Chance — also striking … and thought-provoking.

The Creator of the universe evidently took a chance when He created human beings. According to the biblical record, the first humans committed the flagrant foul that plunged the human race into sorrow and loss — yet God installed the playing field. His decision to create humans in His image with freedom of choice was, safe to say, an incredible risk.

Since God knew beforehand the worst-case scenario of human history and eternity, why would He risk it? Knowing the cost to Himself — His grief and extreme heartbreak, the excruciating death of God incarnate — why would He take such an inconceivable chance?

Apparently, even given all that downside, the risk/reward was (and is) worth it to God. Which means a human heart turned toward Him in affection and need and intimacy, in the midst of this world’s pain and beauty, is worth it to God.

Bottom line: To our Creator, being in close relationship with us was worth an agonizing Friday that we paradoxically call Good.

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“HEART IN CHAMPIONS has to do with the depth of our motivation and how well your mind and body react to pressure — that is, being able to do what you do best under maximum pain and stress.”

The source of this quote? Bill Russell.

The champion’s heart he describes is tied to perseverance and longsuffering. Just ask the Chicago Cubs: After player-manager Frank Chance led them to the 1908 World Series crown, the Cubs had to wait more than a century — until 2016 — to win another World Series.

Who best epitomizes such a heart? Perhaps there are as many answers to this question as there are stars in the sky.

But on my better days, I believe one star shines brightest — the One who endured maximum pain and stress as He was executed on a desperate first-century Friday in the Roman Empire. The One who has asked no human to take any chance that He did not take himself.

Yes, the One who is the incarnate, crucified and risen Creator’s Son — Jesus of Nazareth, the best player-coach in history.

Related Post — Best Player-Coach Ever – Part 3

© Bruce William Deckert 2018

FAST Blast: Best Player-Coach Ever — Bill Russell or First-Century Superstar?

Posted — 19 February 2018

HALL OF FAMER BILL RUSSELL won 11 NBA championships, all with the Boston Celtics. He was a five-time league MVP. Old-school basketball fans are familiar with the incredible exploits of the legendary center.

What’s lesser-known is this: For the last two titles in that amazing stretch — in 1968 and 1969 — Russell was Boston’s player-coach. Further, he was the first African-American coach in the NBA, according to the NBA website.

After the ’69 title, Russell retired on top, riding off into the proverbial sunset. In 1980, he was voted the “Greatest Player in the History of the NBA” by the Professional Basketball Writers Association. Since then, Michael Jordan and perhaps LeBron James have laid claim to that lofty honor, although some still say that Russell is the NBA’s best ever.

What’s indisputable is that Russell has the most championships as a player in NBA history. And two came while he was also the coach.

The concept of player-coach is intriguing — even more so when we consider the bedrock reality of the Christian faith: God incarnate. The cornerstone of the Christian worldview is that God entered the arena of human history. But once in the arena, he didn’t sit in a VIP seat or stand on the sideline as a coach. Rather, he joined the fray on the field of play, essentially as a player-coach.

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I grew up in the Church, so I’m no stranger to this notion. At the same time, I’ve wrestled with questions — mainly, whether the Christian faith is true. By the way, I have the same question about every other faith, philosophy and worldview: Are any of them true? Or is truth so elusive in this life that it’s beyond discovery?

Jesus of Nazareth is the ultimate player-coach proclaimed by the Christian faith, the pivotal figure in human history, according to the biblical record. He says that truth can be known because He can be known, and He is the Person most worth knowing, and He is the embodiment of truth — again, according to the biblical record.

His incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection are the three most essential events known to humankind, and they’ve resulted in what the human heart longs for, the new start of a new creation — yes, according to the biblical record.

Yet how can we know the biblical record, penned by ancient writers, is actually historical? In fact, given the congenital tendency of human nature to fib, fabricate and otherwise falsify, how can we know that any written record — whether ancient or modern — is historical and true?

Let’s revisit these existential and postmodern questions in a moment. But first let’s look at some quotes of record — as reported by 21st-century writers — about the fine art of coaching in the context of our player-coach discussion.

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Conchita Martinez, who won the 1994 Wimbledon title, coached tennis star Garbine Muguruza during her run to the Wimbledon title in 2017. During the tournament, Muguruza said of her coach:

“She’s helping me to deal with the stress — it’s a long tournament. She knows how to prepare, how to train … having her by my side gives me confidence.”

“Having her by my side…” Sound familiar? Jesus is described in the gospels as “Immanuel, God with us” — the player-coach who knows how to prepare and train because he’s been there. The player-coach who is on our side.

Green Bay Packers safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix is working to complete his college degree in criminal justice and has forged a close friendship with judge Donald R. Zuidmulder, who has served as a life coach for the former Pro Bowler. Says Clinton-Dix: “He’s kind of like my second grandfather. It’s definitely a blessing to have him on my side.”

Notice the theme? Here’s another quote in the same ballpark…

Soccer manager Pep Guardiola, who coaches Manchester City, was previously the manager at Barcelona. Another coach, Stuart Pearce, once visited Guardiola at Barcelona. Says Pearce: “He gave me a great insight into how to be a good manager. As we said goodbye and walked away, he turned around and said, ‘By the way, get a Messi in your side.'”

FYI, American fans: “side” means “team” — and of course “Messi” refers to Lionel Messi, who is regarded as the best player in the game today … by Barcelona supporters, anyway. Real Madrid fans say this designation belongs to Cristiano Ronaldo. Among soccer fans worldwide, the general consensus is that the debate about who holds the best-player title begins and ends with these two luminaries.

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“Get a Messi in your side,” Pep Guardiola advises his fellow soccer coaches. Or, if the NBA is your league of choice, get Bill Russell on your team as your player-coach.

Biblical writers advise something similar — get Jesus of Nazareth by your side, on your side, and in your side.

He’s the epitome of every stellar player and player-coach in the universe. He’s the only person — the quintessential Person — who can raise your game so your endgame is knowing Him as the author of life and thus becoming the best person you can be. Apart from Him, New Testament writers say, we’re left with the worst we can be … in the worst-case scenario, forever.

Jesus is the way we can ultimately become the shining stars we were meant to be … forever.

As He declares in the gospel of John: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” A controversial statement in a postmodern world? Perhaps — but the key question is this: Does it reflect reality? In other words, is it true? Which brings us back to the existential question regarding how we can know what’s truly true and historically accurate.

C.S. Lewis, the noted British writer and scholar, connects the question to the issue of authority:

“Don’t be scared by the word authority. Believing things on authority only means believing them because you’ve been told them by someone you think trustworthy. Ninety-nine per cent of the things you believe are believed on authority.

“I believe there is such a place as New York. I haven’t seen it myself. I couldn’t prove by abstract reasoning that there must be such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so. The ordinary man believes in the Solar System, atoms, evolution, and the circulation of the blood on authority — because the scientists say so.

“Every historical statement in the world is believed on authority. None of us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Armada. None of us could prove them by pure logic as you prove a thing in mathematics. We believe them simply because people who did see them have left writings that tell us about them: in fact, on authority. A man who jibbed at authority in other things as some people do in religion would have to be content to know nothing all his life.” — from Mere Christianity

So authority and trust go hand in hand. No one can avoid the issue — scientists, theologians, historians, journalists and sports fans alike — plus everyone else across the spectrum of disciplines and worldviews.

By the way, I have this on good authority: The best player-coach is the best Person to have on your side.

Related Post — The Best Player-Coach Ever, Part 2

© Bruce William Deckert 2018

FAST Blast: An invitation to visit Serengeti Stadium in the New Year

This FAST Blast represents a first — the first time I’ve posted about Serengeti Friendship: Soccer Forgiveness, a book for young people of all ages that was part of the World Cup Exhibit at the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

The revised edition, published in November 2017, is available at Amazon.com.

How did I hear about the book? OK, full disclosure: I wrote it.

On the one hand, I hesitate to tell you about the book because I hope to avoid an unhealthy self-promotion. On the other hand, I believe the story is worth reading, and in order for people to read it, apparently they need to know about it.

In that vein, I had an opportunity to write about Serengeti Friendship for the Sports Spectrum magazine website. Here’s the link to that article:

‘Serengeti Friendship’ offers amazing take on friends, forgiveness for young people and families

In Serengeti Friendship: Soccer Forgiveness, Serengeti Stadium is the host site for the Wild Animal World Cup. If you make the trip for the big event, I hope you enjoy the scenery and the soccer action.

Happy New Year — and best to you and yours in 2018!

— Bruce William Deckert

FAST Blast: On worldviews, detecting truth and Messiah College soccer

Related posts
• Intangibles at heart of stellar Messiah College soccer program
• Reflecting on sports, holiness and Messiah College soccer
• Musing about relative truth, exclusive claims, Messiah soccer
• On worldviews, ‘reasonable disagreement’ and Messiah soccer

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This blog post completes a five-part series on Messiah College soccer and related life-and-faith motifs. If you’re just joining us, no worries — while this post caps the series, it can also stand alone.

ALLOW ME TO NOTE once more, in the interest of full disclosure: I’m a Messiah College soccer parent. My daughter Kayla completed her Messiah career this past fall and graduated this May.

Her class produced a four-year record of 86-6-7, back-to-back Final Fours, and a run to the 2016 national championship game after a rocky start to the season. Yet after that 2-2 start — yes, by Messiah’s standards, 2-2 is a rocky beginning — the Messiah women didn’t lose another match, until the championship game.

In the title game, they fell 5-4 on penalty kicks despite outplaying their opponent (in my view) throughout regulation and overtime. Of course, that’s how soccer works sometimes.

Speaking of Messiah’s standards: 12 Final Fours and five national championships (NCAA Division III) and an undefeated regular-season conference record in 17 seasons under coach Scott Frey.

Messiah’s overall record in that time frame — regular season and postseason — is 362-20-20. I’m no math whiz, so correct me if I’m wrong: That’s an average of barely more than one loss per season. Wow.

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Naturally, such success has resulted in media coverage, and that’s where I left off last post. We’ve examined a philosophical reference to reasonable disagreement by an ESPN.com/espnW reporter in his outstanding story on the Messiah women’s soccer program and what sets it apart on and off the field.

Essentially, the context is the ever-present disagreement about the meaning of life.

When human beings consider the meaning of life, it seems there are as many faiths, worldviews and philosophies to choose from as there are eateries in New York City. Clearly, consensus is elusive if not impossible. Given the numerous menu options in this surging sea of worldview rumination, how can we discern the truth?

Apparently, we need to search, investigate, discuss, mull, and hope and pray we arrive at the right conclusions about matters as weighty as life’s meaning — especially, the origin and identity and destiny of human beings. In other words: Where did we come from? Who are we? And where are we going?

Every worldview addresses these questions, and everyone must answer the question of which worldview is truly on track.

Which brings us back to — how can we ascertain whether something is true? We consider evidence, we contemplate, we seek to verify … and ultimately, we must decide what to believe. And take steps based on that decision.

Another option: We can decide that the worldview question is impossible to answer, a la agnosticism, which maintains that big-picture truth can’t be known. But note the contradiction: The agnostic says we can know that truth can’t be known. In other words, it’s true that we can’t know truth.

I confess, I don’t exactly like the elusiveness of the truth-seeking process.

I tend to prefer that these life-and-faith issues (especially the life-and-death ones) be crystal-clear and so self-evident that we all agree — like the basketball scouts who found and followed LeBron James. Given the uncertainty of the age, I see the appeal of agnosticism.

Yet besides its inherent contradiction, I sense that agnosticism misses out on the necessity of commitment, and when we’re commitment-shy, we miss out on … love.

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The Christian worldview proclaims that truth can be known — not fully because humans are finite, but known nonetheless. In fact, Truth and Love are embodied in a Person: Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God and the Son of Man.

This worldview infuses the ethos of Messiah College and the Messiah soccer program.

In a speech my daughter gave at the 2016 Division III Final Four banquet, she spoke of her Messiah soccer experience: “I saw friendships that were marked by a willingness to care for the other in radical, sacrificial ways. Most importantly, what I found was the foundation from which all these actions stemmed — the desire to love God and love others. Although soccer is what brought our team together, that is not the foundation of our program. Our goal is to point back to God.”

Kayla’s teammate and classmate, Erin Sollenberger, likewise spoke about Messiah women’s soccer (or MWS) at the team banquet that closed the 2016 season: “I know my life wouldn’t be what it is now without the caring hearts of my best friends who … showed me what the unconditional grace and love of Christ looks like. MWS is so not about soccer. Sure, it brings us together, but our God is at the root of it all.”

Compare those quotes with a comment by Phoenix Suns coach Earl Watson, who previously coached in the San Antonio Spurs organization. In an ESPN.com story, he discussed his coaching journey, including his interview with the Spurs — which took place in the immediate wake of his brother’s death.

Watson expressed gratitude to the Spurs for hiring him “at a time when I was very fragile in my life.”

“I went to [my brother’s] funeral on a Saturday, and [met] with the Spurs on Monday. Three days,” Watson says. “I guess you could say I got lucky because I ended up in a place that wasn’t about basketball — it was about family and love.”

Sound familiar? Sure does. That comment could readily be applied to … Messiah soccer.

Under coach Gregg Popovich, the Spurs are known for their selfless, team-first, play-the-right-way culture — which has resulted in the most NBA titles of the past two decades (five, tied with the L.A. Lakers in that time span).

Let’s place Watson’s quote side by side with excerpts from the two Messiah teammates above.

• Suns coach Earl Watson
“I ended up in a place that wasn’t about basketball — it was about family and love.”

• Messiah wing Erin Sollenberger
“MWS is so not about soccer. Sure, it brings us together, but our God is at the root of it all. … My best friends … showed me … the unconditional grace and love of Christ.”

• Messiah defender Kayla Deckert
“I saw … a willingness to care for the other in radical, sacrificial ways … [and] the foundation from which all these actions stemmed — the desire to love God and love others. Although soccer is what brought our team together, that is not the foundation of our program. Our goal is to point back to God.”

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To me, the symmetry of these sentiments is exquisite. One significant difference, though, is that the two soccer players credit God outright as the source of such love, while Watson doesn’t mention God (though he reportedly believes in God).

This brings us full circle … back to a comment, cited in a previous post, by Messiah forward Marisa Weaver: “It’s just kind of impossible to love someone else unless you have the love of Christ in you.” Which prompted this remark by the ESPN.com/espnW reporter: There is ample room for reasonable disagreement on the exclusivity of such sentiment…

So, yes, a skeptic might say: Look, a secular pro team like the Spurs has the same culture as a Christian college team like Messiah … that proves you don’t need God — in fact, it might even prove God doesn’t exist.

But that critique has a counterargument: What if the unseen God of the universe — unseen like oxygen, perhaps — is the lone source of the selfless love that causes people and teams to flourish … whether they believe in Him or not?

What if knowing Jesus Christ — connecting with Him and receiving his heart, like a transplant patient who would die otherwise — is the only way to secure the well-being offered by the Giver of love and life?

And what if growing in the Creator of the cosmos — like a grafted branch on an apple tree — is the sole means of bearing the fruit of love that keeps us from withering away?

Can this counterargument be verified? In this life, I guess not. And in some ways that drives me crazy, because I’d prefer a here-and-now guarantee that erases all questions and avoids all discord. Instead, we’re left with plenty of disagreement and uncertainty in the worldview realm.

Yes, this can drive me crazy — but maybe I shouldn’t be surprised … because sometimes true love does that too.

So I suppose no worldview, faith or philosophy can be proved in a manner that removes all dispute. It appears that disagreements and doubts are an ongoing component of human experience — and healthy doubt can detect error, like a TSA airport scanner, in the pursuit of truth.

Perhaps no worldview can be proved beyond reasonable disagreement, but maybe the worldview that’s true can be known beyond reasonable doubt.

© Bruce William Deckert 2017