Praying in the face of failure

How should sportspeople pray? Can they pray to win? 

A wealthy widow called Proba asked a similar question to one of the greatest theologians of the first millennium, Augustine. Augustine majored on one main theme in his advice around prayer: 

Pray for happiness!

Augustine, like a good coach, doesn’t just tell us what to do; he makes us think. He tells us that if we have grasped that we are dependent on God for all things, then we have realised that all success and pleasures in this world only offer short-term happiness.

Sportspeople know this well. Tom Brady, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, was interviewed during an undefeated season. He was dating a supermodel and making millions of dollars. Even then, he said:

'Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me?'

The interviewer asked him, 'What’s the answer?' Brady responded, 'I wish I knew. I wish I knew.'

Augustine knew. Psalm 27 is to be our prayer: 'One thing have I desired of the Lord, one thing will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord to behold the beauty of the Lord.'

We lack the ability to believe that we have all we need in Jesus, so we need to pray that we would know this. This doesn’t mean we cannot pray for anything else other than to love God like this, but the more we are like the Psalmist, it will shape all our prayers for both us and others.

But what about when sport is tough - when you lose by 0.1 seconds in an Olympic final, how do you pray?

Look at Jesus in Gethsemane. Jesus prays for 'the cup to pass', and He also submits Himself to God: 'Not my will but yours be done.' In these situations of despair and failure, Augustine says, pour out your heart to God but remember His overarching wisdom and goodness as you do.

The whole purpose of life, the victories and defeats, is to teach us how to pray, because the purpose of life is that we would be with God.

Proba was a widow in her thirties and had to flee Rome when it was sacked in 410AD. She knew suffering and yet, Augustine concludes, these tragedies could drive her to prayer and ultimately to finding all her joy not in earthly wealth or comfort but in God. Augustine calls her to embrace her situation and let it teach her how to pray.

Will we accept his invitation too, and let our sporting lives, with their highs and inevitable lows, draw us to God in prayer?