Photo: British Athletics

"I love the sense of satisfaction that I get when I’ve done a swimming workout or race, and know that I gave my whole being and heart to God in every moment of the swim. It’s the best worship I can offer him."

Penny Heyns

Integrity

Fair play and fair competition are essential in sport but are often undermined by human sinfulness. Whether it is doping, breaking financial rules, using illegal advantageous equipment or (at grass-roots level), players playing under a false name, it is happening and undermining the integrity of the sport.

James Naismith, the inventor of basketball said: “Few college men would take money or valuables from another. Yet they are taught in the practices of our sports that it is not dishonourable to take illegal advantage of another, if there is little prospect of being caught”.

Which of us has never called “my ball” during a soccer game, claimed a tennis shot was in (or out) to our advantage, forgotten to count a golf air shot that no one has seen etc?

Then there is the area of where to draw the line in trying to psych our opponents, to gain an (unfair) advantage.

There are so many ways in which our faith influences our approach to our sport as we seek to love our opponent as ourselves. A fundamental part of this is basic integrity as we remember that “The Lord detests dishonest scales”.

Remember too that a day is coming when righteousness and integrity will reign supreme in the new heaven and the new earth.

Weekly sports email