February 7, 2011 - What Does A Player Look Like?

I was recently listening to a coach talk to some young players and tell them to look like ballplayers! It was a clinic setting and he said to establish the pattern of standing like a player and remaining focused even when in line waiting one’s turn. Then he said something interesting; he told them to always smile.

One of the kids then told the coach that his coach in middle school didn’t want them smiling; he wanted them to have on their game faces. Coach simply reminded the kid that basketball is a game and meant to be fun. Hard work simply makes it become more fun!

In his letter to the Ephesians the Apostle Paul reminds believers that our lives should honor and glorify God. He calls us to a walk that is “worthy” (what I recently preached was a “walk of worship.”) He is very definite about how we should “play the game” and that we should “look like players.”

Galatians 5: 15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

He then reminds us that it will result in “playing with a smile” or in other words “living with a song.”

Galatians 5: 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Psalm 40: 3 He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the LORD.