'Linsanity'

‘For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want.'(Galatians 5:17-18)

"You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.' (James 4:4)

The ‘Linsanity’ is on. The basketball fans are so caught with the sensation rise of Jeremy Lin, a 23 year- old Asian-American who is 2.29m in height ,and an Ivy League graduate (Harvard). This is especially among the Asian Americans who always feel being overlooked. They are perceived to be weak, quiet, servile, out of place. There have been complaints even against the top American universities that these institutions have been punishing Asian Americans in the college admissions process. For example, it was said that Princeton University needs Asian-Americans’ Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores 140 points higher than white students, everything else is equal, to have the same chance of getting into it. Lin is said, helps to overcome such ethnic stereotype.

Lin is a devoted Christian. He made public that he wants to play selflessly for God and that his audience is God. Notwithstanding that, he acknowledges that he has been struggling to do so. There is always tension between the moral ethos of sport and the moral ethos of faith. This tension arises from the different values each set is exhorting. In the arena of world professional sports, supremacy, glory, fame, competitive, ambitious, assertive, and intimidating are attributes one must have. In fact, his identity is built around them. The religious ethos, on the other hand, is more about humility (shepherds often becoming great men in the Bible), God’s redemption, self-denial (lose yourself in order to find yourself), surrender to God (willing to give up everything), gain strength by acknowledging one’s weaknesses. Truly these two sets of moral ethos are irreconcilable. One is God’s standards and the other is human standards. We have to decide which standards we want to adopt and excel. It is better to choose which way one wants to commit than be indecisive and live with inner conflicts. For Lin, I hope the choice is obvious.