I watched Sadie Robertson from Duck Dynasty dance on Dancing with the Stars last night.  This week on Dancing with the Stars, the theme was about something that was memorable in your life.  Sadie’s most memorable year of her life was the start of the Duck Dynasty TV show.

She shared that their lives have always been about sharing their faith in God with other people and they wanted to use the platform of the show to continue to share that faith.  She reminisced about the time that her grandfather had stated his opinion on a controversial issue and the media and the public attacked him.  The family had decided not to continue to do the show if they were not able to share their faith and how God was leading them in their lives on the show.  The family vowed to stay true to their belief in God.  As you may know, the show did continue – in true Duck Dynasty fashion.

She said her family just decided that “if you’re holding the football, you’re gonna get tackled.”  And they wanted to hold the football of faith.

I love football but never thought about football being the faith that we carry “down the field” all the way to the “end zone”.  Sadie made a good point using her football faith metaphor – if we are going to be bold in our faith, we have to be ready to get tackled by the non-believers.

Hebrews 12:1(b)-2 says it best: “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

If we think of life as being like a game of football, then we must train and get stronger and run faster and persevere to the end zone.  The way we train is by Bible study and prayer.  The way we get stronger is by living out our faith in every day life and standing up for what we believe – no matter what others say.  We learn to run faster and persevere by going through trials – as hard as it is.

But when we look at this metaphor of football and realize that we fix our eyes on Jesus in the end zone, then we know that we must keep on running and get back up from those who tackle us because Jesus went through much more than we ever have to go through.  He was beaten; falsely accused; physically nailed to a cross. His head was pierced with a crown of thorns as blood ran down His face and instead of water He was given vinegar to drink.  He was sweating. He was aching. His body was full of muscle spasms.  He was heart broken and body broken.  And why?  Because He stood up for God.  He did not waiver in His faith.  He did NOTHING wrong.  He just stood up and tried to help others find the way of heaven by knowing who He was and believing in the One who sent Him.

That’s all we have to do in our lives.  Just keep holding the football of faith.  Keep running and telling others along the way about the One you know.  Try to get others on your team of salvation.  When you get tackled, get up and keep on running.  Play by play……inch by inch…1st down by 1st down, you will get there.  Persevere and hold tight to the football because if you are gonna hold the football YOU ARE gonna get tackled.  Bring those tacklers along with you to the end zone.  Because reaching the end zone is so worth the struggle!  TOUCHDOWN!