I remember when James Harden was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of 2018.

Being clueless about NBA, I was pretty nonchalant about the news while my friends were excitedly talking about it in school. It was pretty big news: Harden had beat out superstars like Anthony Davis and LeBron James to clinch the MVP award.

Seeing how excited my friends were about the news, I decided to learn more about the NBA and went home to research everything about basketball. I started to follow the sport intently, and I was especially interested in those special players who were their team’s MVP.

I marvelled at how glorious it must be to bask in the spotlight and carry the team. 

Along the way, I got around to thinking that if life were a game of basketball, Christ would be the MVP in our court.

In basketball, the point guard is the person who sets his team up to score. When it comes to evangelism or ministry, I tend to feel like I’m the point guard – as if I’m the one setting God up to score.

I might have been serving Him in church at an evangelistic service or I might be sharing my testimony to people – but I had lost the plot along the way. My original focus was to make Him known, but somehow selfish ambition had gotten in the way of that. I began to crave the praise of men in ministry.

I wanted to be the MVP.

When it comes to evangelism or ministry, I tend to feel like I’m the point guard – as if I’m the one setting God up to score.

I deserve the praise of an MVP because I managed to bring people closer to God through my role.

That was what I was actually thinking as I served. The audacity of my pride! The truth is Christ does not need us to set Him up to score. He does not need us.

But He allows us the privilege of playing basketball with Him, when in reality, we shouldn’t even have tickets to get in the stadium. Yet God has included us so.

Sometimes all we need to do in ministry is to simply pass Christ the ball.

But a lot of the time, the temptation is to hold on to the ball, and see how we can make a play for our own glory. We cut Christ out of the picture and make God’s game our own thing.

We just need to pass the ball to Him. Winning the game isn’t our burden to bear, we just have to do what He tells us to. The sooner we realise it’s not about us, the easier it’ll be to shift our attention and focus from ourselves to God. 

We will find that God is able to score infinitely more points that we ever could had we not passed the ball to Him.

The beautiful thing about Christ is that He is also the manager, water boy, player and owner.

As the MVP, He carries the team playing for His cause. And as our Lord and Master, He carries us through life.

He is always able to do far more than we can imagine. Think of what He might do through us when we are clean and willing vessels.

So, whenever I am placed in a situation where I see no end, I can always trust in the MVP. He will make the shot. Even when it looks like we’re losing, He can clutch the game and win it all. That’s just the way when we play on God’s team.

I think back to when I watched Harden’s award acceptance speech. The first words that came out of his mouth struck me: “All glory to God”. I think that should be our attitude whenever we receive any accolades done while serving God. Because it’s not about us. It’s all about Him.

Whether we’re the water-boy or point-guard, let’s remain humble and hungry for Christ and His cause.