One of my favorite stories in the Kingdom Sports: Doing Sports God’s Way Bible Study is from one of the authors, Wes Neal.

“During my (Wes) senior year of high school, a man I greatly respected told me he would come out and watch me practice football the next day. Kenny had become like a combination big brother and father since the death of my own dad. So, all I could think about the following day was Kenny coming to the football field to watch me.

The very second I spotted him walking through the gateway, a muscular 205-pound running back took a hand-off and raced around the end toward me. I wanted so badly to impress Kenny that all I could think about was stopping that running back any way I could. At that moment, it didn’t even matter to me that he outweighed me by over fifty pounds. I threw myself at him with the reckless abandon of a kamikaze pilot. It was a shattering collision. Although the running back didn’t make it through me, my body felt like he had. All of my pain was worth it when I heard Kenny shout from the sideline, ‘Way to go, Wes. You really gave it to him!’ Kenny, watching me, made me more determined than ever to give my best on that play.”

Hebrews 12 – Our Spiritual Observers

Wes’ adrenaline on the football field was elevated by who was watching him play. In Hebrews 12, the writer paints a similar picture of one’s spiritual observers. He tries to motivate and instruct his struggling church to persevere using a distance race as an illustration. The contestants include the author and the members of his flock and, by mutual faith, us.

The cloud of witnesses in the stadium are the spiritual leaders of the past Hall of Fame members from Hebrews 11. This is a figurative representation and means that we should act as if they were watching and cheering us on to the same victory in the life of faith they obtained.

The Kingdom Coach and Athlete set their sights on Jesus and set aside all encumbrances (Heb. 12:1-3). They focus on training themselves to stay strong during their spiritual marathon. This pursuit of sanctification (Heb. 12:14) fights against being conformed to the worldly system. Instead, they serve King Jesus and His Kingdom.