Read
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Philippians 2:3
Reflect
It’s easy to look around and see people doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. Dishonesty certainly isn’t anything new, as demonstrated by a widely reported “lost wallet” experiment conducted by Reader’s Digest. The magazine’s staff placed 12 wallets containing money and contact information in each of 16 cities around the world. Of the 192 wallets dropped, only 90—about 47 percent—were returned. In Lisbon, Portugal, just one of the 12 wallets found its way back to its owner.
I suppose one lesson from the experiment is to keep a very close eye on your wallet if you ever visit Lisbon.
It can sometimes seem as though people are becoming increasingly difficult to trust. Thankfully, there are still some glaring—and encouraging—exceptions.
There always seems to be something happening in the sports world that reminds us what true sportsmanship looks like. During the 2016 Olympics in Rio, New Zealand’s Nikki Hamblin and American Abbey D’Agostino—now Abbey Cooper—became tangled and fell during a preliminary heat of the women’s 5,000-meter race.
D’Agostino got up first, but instead of immediately chasing the runners disappearing ahead of her, she stopped and helped Hamblin to her feet. They resumed running, but D’Agostino soon collapsed again because of a serious knee injury. This time, Hamblin stopped and waited for her. D’Agostino eventually finished the race despite having torn her ACL and meniscus. The two runners crossed the finish line well behind the leaders and embraced after the race.
Neither woman won a medal that day, but both gave the world something far more memorable than another name in the record book.
Another remarkable example occurred during a cross-country race in Spain in 2012. The two leading runners were Kenya’s Abel Mutai and Spain’s Iván Fernández Anaya. Near the end of the race, Mutai became confused and mistakenly stopped before crossing the actual finish line. Fernández was rapidly closing the distance behind him and could easily have sprinted past for the victory.
Many competitors would have done exactly that. They might have called it taking advantage of an opportunity. Fernández saw it differently.
He slowed down, remained behind Mutai and shouted for him to keep running. When Mutai didn’t understand, Fernández reached forward and guided him toward the finish line. Afterward, Fernández explained that Mutai was the rightful winner because he had built a lead Fernández never could have overcome without the mistake.
That is refreshing in a world where people are often encouraged to capitalize on someone else’s confusion, weakness or misfortune.
The lesson isn’t that winning doesn’t matter. Winning is a good thing. Steve Spurrier once recalled his father teaching him that if people are keeping score, you should try to win. I’ve always appreciated that philosophy. Nobody steps onto a field hoping to finish second, and there is nothing especially spiritual about deliberately throwing an interception.
But how we win matters even more than whether we win.
Scripture repeatedly reminds us that character cannot be separated from competition. Proverbs tells us not to rejoice when an enemy falls. Paul tells us to put aside selfish ambition and consider others more significant than ourselves. He also reminds Timothy that an athlete cannot receive the crown unless he competes according to the rules. In Romans, he urges us to seek the good of our neighbors and build them up.
As followers of Christ, fair play should matter to us—not only on the field, but everywhere else. We should follow more than the written rules. We should honor the spirit behind them.
Be excellent at what you do. Work hard. Compete honestly. Try to be the best.
But never become so focused on reaching your own finish line that you are willing to trip someone else along the way. Sometimes the greatest demonstration of Christlike character is slowing down, reaching out a hand and helping another person cross theirs.
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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.
I agree with the position but is the underlying message you have to believe in god to be like this?
Kevin, you know I respect your viewpoint, so I want to be entirely fairr. If I’m understanding what you meant, no, that wasn’t my intended message. I do believe my faith shapes the way I understand service, responsibility and the value of each person’s life. But I don’t believe someone has to believe in God to be generous, dependable or willing to help when others need them.
The faith element in the post was more about how I understand the meaning behind those choices—and the possibility that our lives may have made a greater difference than we can presently see.