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1 Corinthians 9:24-27 – Choking
Sport’s pundits love to ask, “Did they lose the game, or did the other team win?” If the favorite lost to the underdog, then either the latter “rose to the occasion” or else the projected winner “choked.” No one loves a loser (well, there are some franchises); choking means you just can’t cut it, you are mentally weak, not ready for the big stage, and so on. Losers not only don’t win, they don’t win praise and admiration. Their trophy is disdain and distrust.
Scripture pontificates that Christianity is comparable to sports; not that we are playing spiritual games, but that there are rules (2 Tim.2:5); goals (1 Cor.9:26); discipline (1 Cor.9:27); rewards and disqualification (9:24-27).
Spiritually, Christians have all the training, equipment, plays, and coaching needed to win (2 Pet.1:3). Everything required to defeat the opponent, we have. No sin is ever necessary to commit – can you name one that is? And yet we do. We…spiritually choke. So….
So maybe we need to take sports less seriously, and stop blaming so easily those “weak-minded” athletes who do nothing more than what we do every single day spiritually. Let’s take more seriously the spiritual side of life. I don’t want to be asked about me, “Did he lose the game?” “Did he choke?”
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