What sports teach us about perspective

Ohio State third-string quarterback Cardale Jones led the Buckeyes to the first-ever College Football Playoff National Championship Monday night against an underperforming Oregon Ducks team and their Heisman Trophy–winning quarterback Marcus Mariota. It was an unlikely and wonderful story. The day before in the NFL Playoffs, Peyton Manning and his Denver Broncos lost to the Indianapolis Colts, with Manning struggling mightily.

Those are the basics of the stories, but you may have looked beyond those simple facts in the midst of the sensational narratives being presented on social media and in the press:

This is what happens when we lose perspective. We get reactionary and lose sight of history, trends, entire bodies of work, and reality in general. We are so driven by the 24-hour news cycle that we create stories that shouldn’t exist, just to give talking heads something to argue about. Truth and common sense are optional and often inconvenient.

From there we naturally begin to project next steps based on these sensational stories. We paint a fictitious—and often an extreme—picture of the future. But of course we’re never held accountable for our nonsensical predictions. Accountability requires examination and perspective.

We are so accustomed to this kind of response to sports we barely notice, and while it’s annoying, over-sensationalizing entertainment is not a problem in the grand scheme of things. But what about when we do the same thing in politics or in the church, when we react to the fall of a pastor into sin or lose our temper over a perceived misstep by the president? All of a sudden it’s more than annoying—it’s harmful.

A loss of perspective leads us into the most polarizing places, because it allows us to use alienating superlatives unchecked: most, least, best, worst, always, never. It puts us in a position to make something bad far worse and leads us to project an uncertain and apocalyptic future. Instead of maintaining some balance and reason we end up moving as far to one end of a controversy as possible, which can needlessly distance ourselves from brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree.

Losing perspective about a football game is silly. Losing perspective about people’s lives, the church, culture, and other deeply ingrained life issues harms people and relationships. It breeds dishonesty and extremism while removing any and all accountability. As Christians we strive to maintain the perspective that God is sovereign and good and all mankind is made in His image and deserves respect. When we see issues, no matter the magnitude, within this perspective we can avoid the extremes that can cause so much damage.