For those of you who don’t know, I absolutely love basketball! If I told you when I fell in love with basketball, you probably wouldn’t believe me. You also won’t believe me when I say that I understand basketball like Peyton Manning understands football. It just makes sense.
Basketball is a huge part of my life. So when my brother (Andy) was reading Tony Dungy’s devotional, Uncommon Life, he decided to share the devotional Stand Your Ground with me. Dungy wrote, “I’m not sure there is anything more unnatural than taking a charge in basketball.”
Tony Dungy
With all due respect to Mr. Dungy, I would beg to differ. I have a distinct memory of one of the three fouls I remember receiving during my basketball career. I was in junior high playing for the Panthers. I was on defense and somehow the ball got turned over. The other team’s fastest player had a fast break down the court. I ran as fast as I could down the full length of the court to stop her from scoring. I passed her at the key and was able to set my feet on the block and throw my hands in the air a few seconds before she went up for a layup right over me. She didn’t score. The whistle blew. And a block (a penalty) was called on 33 white (that was me)! I was so confused – I didn’t know what I did wrong. I lined up on the lane line anyway and ready for the girl to shoot her free throws, but I got subbed out instead. As I came in, I wanted to know what I had done wrong. But I decided not to.
As I walked to the bench past Coach Hallahan, he grabbed my arm and handed me some water. He said to me, “You didn’t do anything wrong. Plant your feet and take more charges like that! I’m so proud of you . . . Now get back in the GAME!” And I checked back into the game without realizing why my coach was so proud. I didn’t understand until my freshman year in college when Andy showed me what Dungy had written.
I don’t think taking charges in basketball is unnatural – it’s just what you do. I do realize that there really isn’t a single thing about basketball that I would define as unnatural. But here’s the thing, after reading about how unnatural it is to take charges, I began to wonder why it was so natural for me to stand my ground on the court but it was so unnatural to stand my ground and take charges in life.
I realized that I needed to take charges for God. In fact, “God calls us to stand firm in His Word and in the life He wants us to live. No flinching. No moving aside. No finding a path that’s safer” (Dungy). This is not something that is easy for me. I need to not compromise my position and beliefs when things get hard. Life throws us all into fast break situations and zone defenses we can’t handle. Things get hard. We get left behind. We get worn down. But we still need to take charges for God.
We don’t need to compromise our beliefs to make life easier. We need to have a firm foundation in the word so that we can stay hopeful in hard times. We need to look to God and rely on him when things are out of our control. We need to take charges for God.
God calls us to “stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.” (1 Corinthians 16:13). I owe Tony Dungy a thank you for explaining what this means to me. Every day we need to stand firm in our faith and take charges for God. This is something I am working every day at. It is something that is so unnatural, but if I can take a charge for my teammates, then I can take a charge for God. I am working on standing firm in my faith at school with my peers and not compromising my beliefs to appease my friends. I am practicing taking charges for God.
What areas of your life do you need to practice Standing Your Ground?
I will have many opportunities to practice taking Charges for God on the World Race. If you would like to support my trip please click the Support Me! link on the left side of your screen.
