Denver Nuggets Star Michael Porter Jr. recently illustrated that maintaining a solid relationship with God is the most essential thing in this life. As a successful professional athlete, it can be easy to become lost in distractions that detract from one’s faith.
Porter emphasized that this world’s material offerings, such as wealth and fame, have no importance in the grand scheme of life. Particularly in the case of athletes who have dedicated nearly all their lives to a sport, it is important to remember that there is more to life than their athletic endeavors. “At the end of the day basketball doesn’t matter. Money doesn’t matter. Fame doesn’t matter. The most important thing is a relationship with God,” Porter said in an Instagram post shared by Christlete.
The Christian sports account pointed out that any secular offering will have no importance when someone dies and stands before God, recounting their life. At that point, the only thing that matters is whether an individual has put their faith in Jesus Christ, who is the only path to salvation.
“Fame, money, power or anything else that you’re putting your trust in apart from Christ, cannot save you when you take your last breath,”the account added. “Make your relationship right with God NOW while you still can. NOW is the acceptable time. NOW is the time of salvation.”
Porter decided to take a break from social media in 2019, noting that he felt the move was necessary to strengthen his faith. The NBA player noted some of the toxic aspects that can be brought out on social media, such as lust and envy.
“First, you see all these dope stuff going on. You can get into the comparison game or whatever, but then it’s also, as a dude, one of our struggles is females, and there’s unlimited baddies on Instagram,” he explained. “If I’m being 100%, like if you’re trying to focus and stay away from, like, it can be a trap. If that’s your thing you gotta be self-aware. If that’s your thing that you can fall into you can remove it for a while and for me it helped me focus.”
He continued explaining his abstinence from social media noting how the “cons outweigh the pros.” He said, “I just think overall for me, social media and like the day and age that we live in, the cons outweigh the pros for me personally and a lot of dudes in general.” Porter further stated, “It depends what you want out of life and what you are trying to reach for me. I’m trying to, you know, walking in my faith and I’m trying to be a man of integrity and grow. I just feel like social media is a hindrance to that.”
“A lot of people get anxious or mental problems when they’re putting their hope in love that’s unstable,” Porter stated. “So, I’m learning how to try to get my love from a stable source, which for me is God. So, learning to put that over things that are changing and fleeting, like the admiration of fans or what the public says about you, that’s been a big thing that’s brought me peace.”
Featured image credit: All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_Porter_Nuggets_(cropped).jpg