How many of you have ever walked with a limp? We all have at one point or another, and it’s incredibly frustrating. Some push through the limp and play on, but every movement comes with pain. Others are sidelined, antsy to return to the court or the field.

In my second year playing professional basketball in Argentina, I developed a nagging pain in my left knee. What started as a minor ache turned into what felt like a knife stabbing my joint every time I jumped. It turned out to be grade four cartilage knee deterioration, and cartilage don’t grow back! Even though I don’t jump high, I jumped a lot, and it severely affected my performance. Post-game aches left me walking with a limp.

Unfortunately, I could not finish the season. I soon found myself on a plane home, not knowing if it was all over for me. I fell into a deep, dark valley; depression and confusion ruled my mind. Hopelessness and doubt reigned as I constantly asked, “Is my career over?”

But God met me in that season. He taught me that the reason I was filled with depression, confusion, and hopelessness was that basketball had become yet again an IDOL to me.

This was not the first time I had lost basketball, but every time I lost it, it felt like the first time. Somehow, sports does that to you. It becomes your everything. Thankfully, God graciously reminds us—when we forget—that He is everything.

What Is An Idol? What Is Worship? What Does It Have To Do With Limping?!

An idol is simply something that you worship that isn’t God. Let me define the word worship for you: worship is bowing down.

Worship is whatever you surrender your life to, pay total homage to, and place supreme worth on. We worship whatever we deem worthy of praise. What is praise? It means to boast about! To throw up your hands! To sing songs to! To adore! To shout triumphantly in.

Does this sound familiar?

In our culture, we worship sports; we praise athletes! Think about a college football game: thousands upon thousands of people throwing up their hands, shouting, and adoring—essentially making athletes into little gods to be worshiped.

Let me tell you two biblical stories about worship and limping. Interestingly, there are only two primary Hebrew words used in the Bible that personify the act of limping, and they paint two very different pictures.

Pasach: Limping Around An Idol

Elijah prays, the Living God answers with fire!

There once was an evil king named Ahab and his wicked wife, Jezebel. They were the king and queen of Israel—the very people of the God who had saved them from slavery in Egypt. We all know the story of the parting of the Red Sea. Well, hundreds of years later, after God gave them a Promised Land and a Promised Kingdom, evil rulers began leading the people astray to worship false gods, including Baal and Asherah.

These were the gods of the Canaanites. Worshiping them was supposed to bring about personal prosperity: fertility, favorable weather, agricultural abundance, and victory in battle. However, worshiping these gods also came with all sorts of sinful practices, including sexual immorality and child sacrifice.

*Two practices widely practiced in America today.*

These so-called gods had their own prophets and temples. Yet, there was one prophet of the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth: Elijah.

The Lord told Elijah to confront Ahab. So, Elijah summoned the king and the prophets of Baal and Asherah—850 prophets in total—to an epic mountain-top showdown against the one prophet of the Lord. One versus 850.

“And Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.’ And the people did not answer him a word.” (1 Kings 18:21, ESV)

Elijah essentially said: Let’s see who the real God is. The God who sends fire to consume a ox on an altar is the true God.

The Baalites cried out to their god: “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. The Scriptures say for hours they “limped around the altar that they had made” (1 Kings 18:26, ESV).

The Hebrew word used here is pasach. It means to hop from one side to another, to waver, or to be lame. Elijah is using it as a sarcastic metaphor for spiritual indecision. This type of limp comes from worshiping things other than our Creator and Savior.

But there is a deeper layer to Elijah’s words—some serious prophetic wordplay. Pasach is the exact same root word used for the holiday of Passover (in Hebrew, Pesach). If you speak Spanish, you can easily see the similarity in the word Pascuas!

By choosing this specific word, Elijah is heavily convicting these Israelites by reminding them of their covenant. Passover wasn’t just a rescue mission; it was the foundation of a binding, blood-bought relationship between God and His people. Elijah is mocking them for “passing over” the very God who saved them out of slavery in Egypt, breaking their covenant to worship the cheap, false gods of the land He had delivered them to. They had forgotten the covenant-keeping God whose righteous judgment passed over them when they were slaves, and now they were helplessly limping around altars they had made themselves.

Here is the hard lesson I learned as a young athlete: sports don’t care about you! Basketball is an awful god. I gave basketball all my heart and soul, and it left me injured, broken, and unfulfilled. I cried out to basketball, and it did not answer—there was no voice. Basketball kept right on going and left me sidelined and forgotten.

However, God does have a voice. God does answer prayer. God is LOVE. He is a Good Father, compassionate, and abounding in steadfast love. I learned in that season that I can lose anything in this world, but I cannot lose God, because God is alive, eternal, and GOOD!

This is the lesson I hope to leave you with: sports, money, fame, and accomplishments can never satisfy, but Jesus Christ can. Seek Him with all your heart, and you will find Him. Jesus is the only one worthy of worship because He is the only one who paid for your sins with His blood on the cross. He is the first in history to die and resurrect, never to die again—taking our sins to the grave and squashing the authority of the evil one.  

When we worship things other than Jesus, we can be sure we will walk with a spiritual limp. No fire came from the heavens when they cried out to Baal. Listen to Elijah’s mocking:

“At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” (1 Kings 18:27, NIV)

The prophets of Baal cried, cut themselves, and raved from morning until noon, but no one answered, and no one paid attention. This is where chasing idols gets you: limping around altars you created for yourself, with no one to answer and no one to pay attention. Nothing.

Elijah then proceeded to build an altar to the Lord. During a severe drought and famine, he dug a trench around the altar and had the people soak the wood and the offering with water three times until the trench was full. Soaking the offering in precious water makes it humanly impossible to light on fire.

But when Elijah prayed, GOD answered! The Lord sent down fire that consumed the offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and it licked up all the water in the trench. God proved to be the only Living God that day, and He continues to prove it again and again in every generation.

Tsala: Limping from an Encounter with the Living God

Jacob Wrestling For A Blessing! “So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” Genesis 32:30

The other Hebrew word for limping is found in Genesis, in the story of Jacob. Jacob was a young man, the grandson of Abraham, who was known as a deceiver. His very name means “heel-grabber.” Born as the younger twin to Esau, he was always grabbing for the blessing of the firstborn son.

Jacob successfully stole Esau’s birthright and blessing, but he found himself running for his life to escape his brother’s wrath. In the wilderness, on the run, God brought him on a journey that would literally break him.

After many agonizing years, the Lord had blessed Jacob with a large family and an abundance of livestock. Now, however, he was about to face Esau for the first time since fleeing. Terrified for his life, he spent the night alone.

“And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day has broken.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.'” (Genesis 32:24-26, ESV)

The Lord relented and blessed him, but Jacob’s hip socket was wrenched out of place. Jacob walked the rest of his life “limping because of his hip.” (Genesis 32:31 ESV)

The Hebrew word used for his limp here is tsala, meaning to be lame. What a plot twist! The man who had spent his whole life on the run could not run anymore. The man who had relied entirely on his own strength could no longer wrestle. Instead, his life would now be marked by walking with God, not running from Him. He would lean on God, not fight Him. Tsala reflects a personal encounter with God that brings lasting change. Jacob walked away a marked man, limping into an entirely new life.

His name was changed to Israel, which literally means “He who wrestles with God.” God didn’t name His people after a man who was perfect; He named them after a man who was willing to stay in the ring, go blow for blow with the Lord, and wrestle through the dark until the blessing came. Before this, Jacob was a stealer of blessings; after this encounter, he became a giver of blessings—eventually even blessing the Pharaoh of Egypt. His whole life was permanently changed after this encounter with the Living God.

The Rest of My Story! 

Sarah visiting me in Argentina for some of the final games of my basketball career 2023.

That brings me back to my own journey. Remember that grade four cartilage deterioration in my knee? That season of depression and loss was my own wrestling match with God. When my physical strength was quite literally put out of joint, I finally stopped running. I let go of my idol… again… and the Lord called me into wholehearted service to Him.

In a wild, beautiful twist of grace, God actually sent me back to Argentina! But this time, I didn’t return as a professional athlete chasing my own glory. I went back to start a house church discipleship group called Chacareros de Cristo (Vineyard Workers for Christ). My identity was completely transformed; I wasn’t an athlete anymore, I was a Son and a servant.

About six months into ministry there, something completely unexpected happened. The coach of the basketball club I used to play for reached out and asked me to play again. I was incredibly hesitant. Given the severity of my deterioration, I didn’t know if I would last a single game. But I gave it a chance in faith.

I stepped back onto the court with a totally different heart—and a completely healed body! My knee was completely miraculously restored. I ended up playing for two more years! Praise the Lord, He is so good. Basketball was a terrible god, but once I surrendered it and placed God on the throne of my life, He gave the sport back to me as a beautiful gift to enjoy.

Two Kinds Of Limps

The first, pasach, is the limp of wavering, spiritual indecisiveness, and double-mindedness. It is the limp of a people who have forgotten their redemption. It is the spiritual indecision and impotence that comes from passing over Jesus to chase idols that cannot hear, cannot speak, and cannot save.

The second, tsala, is the limp of a holy encounter. It is the mark of a believer who has wrestled with God, surrendered their own strength, and walked away permanently transformed, fully leaning on Him.

One limp comes from false worship around fake altars; the other comes from the overwhelming weight of God’s glory and grace.

Which kind of limp do you walk with?

“Little Children, keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:21 ESV)