Sports Spectrum Daily Devotional: Wednesday, May 6

“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” — Romans 12:4-5

Role Players

Since his rookie year, Tristan Thompson has evolved into a champion basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Never a great jump shooter away from the basket, he honed his skills and defined his role on the team as an elite rebounder, and one of the greatest offensive rebounders in this era. His motto is, “See ball, get ball.”

Tristan doesn’t worry about how many shots he gets. He is dedicated to the role of getting the ball back for his team through strong defense and fierce rebounding. It would have been a different story if Tristan had said, “Because I’m not the best shooter, I should quit the team.”

It is the same with the Church. Paul teaches the Church at Corinth, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. … Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body” (1 Corinthians 12:12,15).

Like Tristan, it is vitally important that every Christian recognize the spiritual gifts he/she has received from the Lord, and learn how to use them to help strengthen and encourage the body of Christ. It is equally important that, like Tristan, we accept and relish the role the Lord has given us within “Team Christ.”

Learn to use your gifts to build the Church. We need you!

— Jerry Birch, Cleveland Cavaliers chaplain

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