Dribble Your Faith Like a Basketball

The word practice means several things. In the religious sense, it means to follow or observe habitually or customarily. In the military or athletic sense it means to train or drill. In the talent or skill sense, practice describes the act of performing or doing something repeatedly in order to acquire skill or proficiency. And finally, the word also means to exercise or pursue as a profession, art or occupation. So the same person can practice Christianity, basketball, violin, and law. (But probably not all simultaneously!)

When we talk about practicing our faith, by default we think of practice in a religious way, but what if we brought in the athletic/military definition of the word and applied it to Christianity? It seems that the Bible has beaten us to the punch because the New Testament is full of references that speak of faith using war and athletic imagery. Ephesians 6:12 tells us that “We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens. (CEB)” In Philippians 3 , Paul pictures himself in a race where the goal he’s pursuing is “the prize of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus. (CEB)”