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He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8
Reflect
Life hadn’t been easy for Jim. He grew up poor and wasn’t very good in school. His twin brother, Charlie, was his biggest help, but Charlie died when the boys were only nine. His mother died several years later while giving birth. Then his father was wounded in a hunting accident and died of gangrene when Jim was just 17 years old. Orphaned, Jim dropped out of school and went to work on a farm.
A few years later, he returned to school, and a coach noticed his athletic talent. Jim began competing in a variety of sports, from baseball and lacrosse to ballroom dancing. He even became an intercollegiate ballroom dancing champion. He became a three-time football All-American, and though he didn’t regularly compete in track and field events, he was selected to compete in the Olympics.
By now, you might have guessed that Jim was Jim Thorpe. And all of those things really did happen to him. But some of his greatest feats were still to come—and so were some of his greatest disappointments.
In the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Jim was the star attraction. He won four of the five events in the pentathlon. In the decathlon, he finished in the top four in every event and won four of them. He was awarded the gold medal in both competitions and was honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York City when he returned home.
Jim was a hero—for the moment.
What followed would demonstrate how easily rules intended to protect fairness can become instruments of injustice.
Thorpe had been paid a small amount to play minor-league baseball during two summers. Technically, that made him a professional, even though he was hardly earning a living from the game. Thorpe later maintained that he had not understood that accepting the money would disqualify him from Olympic competition. Unlike other college athletes who played under assumed names, Jim had used his real name, which certainly suggests that he wasn’t trying to hide anything.
His baseball experience also had nothing to do with his ability in track and field. But under the strict amateurism rules of the time, Jim had broken the rules. His Olympic titles and medals were taken from him.
The governing bodies also disregarded their own rules by failing to challenge Thorpe’s eligibility within the required time following the Olympics. They enforced the rules against Jim while overlooking the rules that applied to themselves.
Over the years, Thorpe and others repeatedly appealed the decision, but justice did not come during his lifetime. In 1983, about 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee presented commemorative medals to his family and restored him as a co-champion.
Full recognition did not come until 2022, when the IOC finally restored Jim Thorpe as the sole gold medalist in both the pentathlon and decathlon—110 years after he had won them.
Life isn’t always fair. People sometimes do the right things for the wrong reasons, and sometimes do the wrong things while convincing themselves that their reasons are right. We cannot always expect perfect justice in this life. Ultimately, God will set things right—and I know that isn’t always comforting when the damage has already been done.
In Jim’s case, the officials cared only for the letter of the law and not its spirit. Worse, they disregarded their own procedural rules in order to punish him. Their decision was neither just, kind nor humble.
Micah does not tell us merely to enforce rules. He tells us to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God. Those three belong together. Justice without kindness can become cruelty, and authority without humility can persuade us that whatever we have the power to do must therefore be right.
We may not be able to guarantee that justice will always be done for us, but we can make certain that we remain on the side of justice ourselves. Whenever we are asked to judge another person—formally or informally—we can slow down, hear the whole story and make certain that everyone involved is treated fairly.
If we are to reflect the light of Christ in a darkened world, we must do justice, love kindness and remain humble enough to recognize that possessing authority does not make us infallible.
Reflection copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
