Justin Buzzard Justin Buzzard

I'm Justin Buzzard, lead pastor of Garden City Church in Silicon Valley.

Play Offense and Defense (The Christian Life is Like a Football Game)

I think it’s helpful to think of the Christian life like a football game. To win a football game you have to do two things: play good offense and play good defense. Your goal on offense is to score a lot of points. Your goal on defense is to not let the other team score points and to get back on offense as quickly as possible.

Defense

As Psalm 1 orients us to the Christian life, it puts us on defense first:

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

The first thing the psalm does is give us a defensive strategy—it first tells us what to say “no” to. The psalm tells us what we must not allow to gain any yardage in our life: the counsel of the wicked, the way of sinners, and the seat of scoffers. In short, we are playing defense against sin. Sin is a Running Back that wants to run up a 100 yard game on us today. Good defense knows the Running Back’s number, knows his favorite plays, and aims to tackle the Running Back for a loss of yardage and minimize his impact on the game.

Offense

Next, Psalm 1 puts us on offense:

but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

This psalm’s offensive strategy is representative of the entire biblical playbook: delight in God and heed God’s voice. To march the ball down the field you don’t need superior athleticism and trick plays. The play calling is simple: delight in God, know God, love God, adore God, trust God; believe his voice written down in the Scriptures, pay attention to his voice over all other voices, meditate on the good news that that constantly proceeds from God’s mouth and live accordingly.

Gameday

Today, like everyday, is Gameday. The game just started. The ball was just snapped, a Running Back named “Anxious Thoughts” received the handoff and is charging your direction. Where are you? You’re on defense. Don’t give Anxious Thoughts an inch, knock him down as hard as you can and as quick as you can. Next play. The starting Quarterback, named “Condemnation”, drops back with the ball. He spots a Wide Receiver, named “Guilt & Shame”, open downfield. Your job: sack the Quarterback, don’t let him throw that pass.

There’s deep wisdom in Psalm 1. Like it or not, you will begin most days on defense. The goal is to try to hold the world, the flesh, and the devil to just 3 downs and to force a punt on 4th down.

Now you’re on offense. You are not alone. God is for you, God is with you, God is talking to you. Your playbook is more than adequate, God has painstakingly written down everything he wants you to know and do. The game is God’s. He recruited you to play your particular position at this particular time in human history. Trust him. Delight in him. You already have his approval, Jesus took care of that. Understand that the game is his and the game is already won. Enjoy God, focus in on his voice above all others, and run fast down the field doing what God recruited you to do with your life. Score as many points as you can. Use your talents. Give God all the glory, and revel in the joy of it all.

You have to play both ways in the Christian life. You need good offense and good defense. The key is to always know where you’re at on the field, to know if you’re playing offense or defense and to play your guts out until the final whistle blows.

He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers. -Psalm 1:3

22. November 2010 by Justin Buzzard
Categories: God, Manhood | 12 comments