I will never forget watching Reggie Miller score eight points in the last thirty-two seconds of a 1995 Eastern Conference NBA playoff game in Madison Square Garden. Miller’s “never say die” heroics in the closing seconds gave the Indiana Pacers a thrilling two-point victory over the New York Knicks. Throughout his eighteen-year career with the Pacers, Miller was the picture of persistence. He didn’t make every clutch shot he took, but he never stopped shooting them. In an interview following his final NBA game, he summed up his career by saying, “I tried. I showed up for every game and I tried.”

Colin Falls of Notre Dame had his day in the limelight. Not only did he score 23 points by hitting seven 3's, but he saved the game by taking a charge in the last 20 seconds of the game. Falls understood his role for the game against Boston College and helped to knock them from the ranks of the undefeated.

Paul was one believer who knew his role with Christ. Though he could have boasted about the great things he was doing for Christ, he understood his place. He knew it was by grace that he was saved and that it wasn't anything that he did to bring glory to himself. He was honored to do his part in building God's kingdom. Paul did what it took to get God's word to the people who needed to hear the message. He knew his role.

It doesn’t matter how good or how bad you are at sports. God is love. It doesn’t matter whether you have all A’s or all F’s on your report card. God is love. But what exactly is love?

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails" (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, NIV).

Those of us who watch a lot of sports programs on television have probably seen the St. Louis Cardinals’ “blanket” commercial. It begins with a man who wraps a red St. Louis Cardinals’ blanket around himself. As it turns out, the blanket is the one constant in his life as he grows up. As a child, he uses it as a cape when he runs up the steps, and he drapes it over his bed when he studies. It is on the seat when he learns to play the drums as a teenager, in the trunk when he moves out of the house, and around his girlfriend while they watch a movie. The commercial ends with the man wrapping the blanket around his child as these words come on the screen: “Without sports, what would we hold on to?”