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Saturday, September 5, 2009

Jesus, Basketball and Me

A few weeks ago I made a presentation to my home group with the above title. I asked the question what does Jesus haveto do with basketball?

To cut it short, I suggested that Jesus is Lord over all areas of our lives; including our jobs, hobbies and interests. What that means is, God created all good things, He created them for His glory, and we are to enjoy them best when we "experience" them the right way.

I believe God ultimately created basketball, and that it was created to showcase our God given talents and skills. Its both a skill game and a tactics game. So a Christian basketball player is not an oxymoron in the same way a Christian prostitute, or Christian theif would be.

Another question I proposed was; what kind of player would Jesus be like if He played basketball? Aside from being able to shoot miracle shots, what I really mean is what kind of attitude and personality would he bring onto the court.

One person who really personifies the Christian Sportsman is David Robinson:



"I can run. I can jump. I can block shots. I can dunk. But I can't take pride in that. I'm successful because God gave me the ability."

"What I need to do is have a great positive attitude and a great work ethic. Those two things validate me. Yes, it's important that I have good numbers, and I'm well-respected as a player. But I think it's more important that I'm respected as a man."

Let me propose this idea. Basketball is best enjoyed when we play it for the glory of God, honouring other players as real human beings, and respecting the game as it is created by God Himself. And let this also apply to everything else we do too.

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